Yellowjacket

Yellowjackets are small wasps.

They are black and yellow. Some are even black and white.

These wasps live in big groups. They live in nests made of paper. They make this paper by chewing wood.

Yellowjackets are good hunters. They eat other bugs. This helps farmers by eating pests.

They like to eat sweet things. They find food in fruit or tree sap.

All the females can sting. They are very busy in the summer. They work hard to help their group.

Yellowjackets are social wasps. They live in large groups called colonies.

Most yellowjackets have black and yellow markings. Some are black and white. They have a fast, side-to-side flight pattern. This helps you spot them.

These wasps are great hunters. They eat other insects. This helps farmers by eating pests. The adult wasps like sugar. They eat fruit and nectar. Their young larvae eat meat. The workers chew up meat for them.

Yellowjackets build nests from wood fiber. They chew the wood into a paper-like pulp. Most nests are hidden underground. Some nests hang in trees.

A single queen starts a nest in spring. She lays eggs. The eggs hatch into larvae. The larvae grow into workers. The workers help the queen and the nest. By late summer, a nest can have 5,000 workers.

All females can sting. They have a sharp stinger. Most stings only hurt people with allergies. In the winter, the colony dies. Only the new queens survive. They hide in safe places until spring.

Yellowjackets are social wasps that live in large groups called colonies.

Most of these wasps have black and yellow markings on their bodies. Some species, like the bald-faced hornet, are actually black and white.

You can often spot them by their very fast, side-to-side flight pattern. They are helpful to humans because they hunt many pest insects. This makes them important predators for people who work in agriculture. While they look like honey bees, they lack dense hair on their bodies.

Building a home is a big job for these insects. A single queen starts a nest in the spring. She finds a safe spot like a tree or a hole in the ground.

The queen chews up wood fiber to make a paper-like pulp. She uses this pulp to build a small nest for her eggs. When the eggs hatch, the young larvae need food to grow. Workers collect meat or fruit and chew it up for the larvae. This helps the colony grow very quickly through the summer months.

Many different types of yellowjackets live in different parts of the world. In North America, you might see the eastern or western yellowjacket.

Some species, like the German wasp, actually came from Europe. These wasps moved to places like South America and Australia. In the United States, the German yellowjacket first appeared in Ohio in 1975. It is known for being very bold and aggressive. Other species, like the southern yellowjacket, can build huge colonies with many queens.

A typical colony changes a lot as the seasons pass. In the spring, a queen starts a small nest alone. By late summer, a nest might have 5,000 workers and 15,000 cells.

In some warm areas, the southern yellowjacket can reach 100,000 adults. During this peak time, the colony makes new males and queens. These new reproductives leave the nest to mate. When autumn arrives, the workers and the old queen die off. Only the new fertilized queens survive the winter by hiding in safe places.

You might see the name yellowjacket in many places outside of science. Many schools and colleges use the wasp as a fun mascot.

For example, Georgia Tech has a mascot named Buzz. Even the Marvel character Yellowjacket is based on this insect. He can shrink down to a tiny size and fly. In the winter, the nests usually fall apart and disappear. This allows the cycle to start all over again when spring returns.

Yellowjackets are predatory social wasps belonging to the genera Vespula and Dolichovespula.

In North America, they are commonly called yellowjackets, but in other English-speaking regions, they are simply known as wasps. These insects are highly organized social creatures that live in colonies. They play a vital role in the environment as predators of pest insects. This predatory behavior makes them beneficial to agriculture. They are often confused with honey bees due to their size and color. However, yellowjackets lack the dense, tan-brown hair found on honey bees. They also do not have the flattened, hairy hind legs used for carrying pollen.

Yellowjackets possess specialized mouthparts for different types of feeding. They have strong mandibles, which are jaw-like parts, used for capturing and chewing insects. They also have probosces, which are tube-like structures, for sucking nectar, fruit, and other juices. This allows adults to consume sugars and carbohydrates. While adults focus on these liquids, their larvae require protein to grow. Workers collect meat or fish and chew it into a form the larvae can eat. In a process called trophallaxis, the larvae secrete a sugary substance. The workers then eat this substance in exchange for the protein they provide.

Building a nest is a complex engineering task involving wood fiber. Workers and queens chew wood into a paper-like pulp to construct their homes.

The type of nest depends on the specific genus. Species in the genus Dolichovespula, such as the aerial yellowjacket, often build exposed aerial nests in trees or shrubs. In contrast, species in the genus Vespula typically build concealed nests. These are often found underground in soil cavities, tree stumps, or mouse burrows. Some even build nests inside man-made structures. The nests contain multiple horizontal tiers of combs where the larvae hang.

The life cycle of a colony follows a strict seasonal pattern. It begins in late spring or early summer when a single queen, called a foundress, emerges. She selects a site and builds a small paper nest to lay her eggs. After the eggs hatch, the queen feeds the larvae for 18 to 20 days. Once the larvae pupate, they emerge as small, infertile females known as workers. By midsummer, these workers take over the tasks of foraging, nest expansion, and colony defense. The queen remains inside the nest to lay eggs until her death in the autumn.

As summer progresses, the colony grows at a rapid pace. A typical nest might reach a size of 10,000 to 15,000 cells with 4,000 to 5,000 workers. However, some species can reach much larger scales. In the southeastern United States, the southern yellowjacket (Vespula squamosa) can build perennial colonies. These massive colonies can contain dozens of queens and 100,000 adult wasps. In late summer, the colony produces new males and queens. These reproductive members leave the nest to mate. While males die quickly after mating, fertilized queens seek protected places like hollow logs or leaf litter to overwinter.

History and movement have changed where yellowjackets live. Some species are considered invasive in various parts of the world. The German wasp (Vespula germanica) and the common wasp (Vespula vulgaris) are native to Europe. They have since established themselves in South America, Australia, New Zealand, and southern Africa. In the United States, the German yellowjacket first appeared in Ohio in 1975. It has since become a dominant species, often outcompeting the native eastern yellowjacket. The German yellowjacket is noted for being particularly bold and aggressive.

Yellowjackets are also significant in the study of biological mimicry. Many other insects have evolved to look like yellowjackets to avoid predators. This includes certain bees and wasps through Müllerian mimicry, where two dangerous species resemble each other. It also includes flies, moths, and beetles through Batesian mimicry, where a harmless species mimics a dangerous one. This connection shows how the appearance of the yellowjacket influences entire ecosystems.