Yellow jackets are social colonizers with a queen/worker structure. Yellow jacket queens are more than an inch long, the workers are a little shorter-about 3/4th inch, and all have a typical pattern of black and yellow markings.
Yellow jackets usually construct a subterranean nest, but occasionally build them in wall voids, attics and above ground sites. Their numbers are great in public camps in mountain areas. Wasp outbreaks are believed to be the result of mild winters and an early spring. These insects are most adversely affected by severe spring weather. In hot weather, wasps seek water wherever it is spilled or in the wet sand of beaches along the shores of mountain lakes.
Adult wasps feed on nectar, honeydew, fruit juices, sap or similar substances. The larvae are given protein food by the adults and in return secrete a sugar substance on which the adults feed. Typical foods for the larvae consist of other insects and spiders, if the wasps are predators, or bits of meat from any source, if they are scavengers. Adult wasps will also feed on nectar, honeydew, fruit juices, sap or similar substances. It is a pest because it is abundant and is often a scavenger, and they do have a painful sting. They are most probably the type buzzing around your food at a picnic, often referred to as "meat bees" because of their attraction to meat. They are also called hornets.

Life Cycle:

In the spring, queens lay single eggs in each cell of a nest, about 10-20 eggs at the beginning. The nest may eventually contain 25,000-30,000 eggs. When larvae hatch, she feeds them pre-chewed meat or food fragments as they grow and fill the cell. They become pupa using the cell to form a cocoon. The larval and pupal periods take about a month. The nest gets larger throughout the summer as new females become workers, and 3,000 to 15,000 individuals can be in it at one time. New queens hibernate over the winter and start a new nest in the spring.

Main Characteristics

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