Comments on: They’re Here! Yellow Jacket Season Begins

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 16:11:45 +0000

I seem to be the unlucky exception to have my being taken over by yellow jackets. I am located in southern New Hampshire and replaced my queen 2 weeks ago. I have been checking the have for new brood, but each time finding dozens of my bees dead at the front of the hive. This morning I discovered lots of feeding activity, but most were yellow jackets attacking my bees. I opened my hive to discover almost no activity in the hive. Does not appears to be any YJ inside and very few honey bees. Please suggest any possible actions I can take, or should I abandon all hope and begin fresh nex spring?

Kevin

By: Linda

Linda — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 22:39:39 +0000

I live in Bandon, Oregon. I cannot find out when “spring” begins so I can set out my W H Y wasp traps to catch the yellow jacket Queens. Is it March 1, April 1? Very frustrating! I get so many yellow jackets because I live next to a wooded lot. White faced hornets too. I can’t even enjoy my yard in summer without them landing on my arms (and staying there).

By: Donna

Donna — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 17:42:33 +0000

If you are stung by large amounts of these or any bees, contact your hospital emergency dept. It can be fatal. My husband ran over a nest of yellow jackets(we believe), with a lawn mower. Afterwards my daughter & I tweezed hundreds of stingers off of him. He was complaining of a headache, so I contacted the emergency dept. He was given a choice, have someone drive him to the hospital or they’d send an ambulance. The stinger’s poisons build up in your system over time and easily counteracted with the proper I.V.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 16:09:01 +0000

Excellent article! I’ve been trying to convince my husband for weeks that he is mis-identifying our paper-wasps, and their nests, as yellow jackets. I sent him the picture and your sweet story. Hopefully an outside source will carry more weight! Lol!

By: Gary Kaufman

Gary Kaufman — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 15:00:14 +0000

The folks at keeping backyard bees just re-ran your article on YJs. Great stuff especially since we are also W. Washington hobby bee keepers. Similar observations about the YJs and them ground hunting around and under our Top Bar Hives. Been keeping both pheromone and protein baits out BUT the whole baiting with Frontline is the first I’ve heard as an option. And since we have Livestock Guardian Dogs, we always have some Frontline in hand. Finding the actual YJ nests is more of the “accidental” event than a real hunt and search given our environment. So gonna try it. Thanks for the tip. Taking stuff BACK to the nest is a perfect option for us.

By: LYNND

LYNND — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 19:40:56 +0000

I live in zone 9 (CA) at moderately high elevation and sometimes we get unseasonably warm weather in January or February, with periodic frosts through early April. With that in mind, what is the best time of the year to put out a store-bought yellow jacket lure? Supposedly the queens emerge in Spring to build their nest and so I’ve read that this is the best time of year to lure the queen into a trap, which prevents a colony from establishing in the first place. The question is, how does one tell when the queen will emerge from hibernation to begin looking for a nest site? And once she selects a nest site, how often does she emerge after that?

By: moraliste

moraliste — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 20:41:44 +0000

Until I sat down & read this I was about to mistake umbrella wasps for yellow jackets. It was the picture that di9d it – they are impossible to confuse.

A related comment: I suffered a disturbing incident a few days ago thanks to a hummingbird feeder – the fancy glass kind you buy in a store. I found more than a dozen dead honey bees floating inside of it. Honey bees have never come around before – this was the first summer I hung one on the deck. I will never buy another hummingbird feeder. My homemade are better b/c I can poke tiny holes in the bottom (of a plastic water bottle) & only ants can get in & well … who cares about a few dead ants? ( I am fascinated by ants – but they have got to be one of the dominant animal species on the planet & the loss of a few mean s nothing, except maybe metaphysically.)

Again, thanks so much for the useful information & photo comparison. Many sites fall down in the latter category, which is so crucial actually – a picture being worth 1000 words.

By: Willard Myatt

Willard Myatt — Tue, 06 Aug 2019 00:12:28 +0000

I appreciate the pointers about Yellow Jackets.

By: Susan Chernak McElroy

Susan Chernak McElroy — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 15:47:14 +0000

In reply to Blanca. Those are yellow jackets. Bees just don't make a nest on porches like that.

By: Blanca

Blanca — Tue, 01 Jan 2019 23:23:31 +0000

I can’t tell which I have on my front porch and I only have an upward view of them. They appear to be stickier no slender waist and about half are mostly black while the others are striped yellow and black. What are they