Yellow Jackets

…hot and smoky, almost irreverent...

Western Yellowjacket by James Wainscoat, courtesy of Unsplash

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This is only my eleventh post and I’m constantly finding more topics to write about. I truly appreciate all my subscribers, especially those who like or comment on my posts! Writing is fun but writing in a vacuum is not nearly as enjoyable as when I get feedback on my efforts. If you have any thoughts about my posts I’d like to hear them in the comments section. There will be some future posts that will hopefully spark some fruitful discussions.

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Onward to today’s topic…

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Once while dozing in my van by the Pit River on a hot summer day, I felt what I thought was a fly painfully biting my foot. When I used my other foot to brush it off, I was jolted awake by a sting, instantly aware that it was no fly trying to take a piece out of my foot! I know yellow jackets like to carve off flesh from dead animals, earning their nickname meat bees, but did my feet really smell that bad?

I love nature, but honestly, there are some creatures I could do without. Ants, of course, rank up there but another are yellow jackets. Honeybees I like, but I’m sorry, yellow jackets…not a fan. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been stung by these critters.

Another time a yellow jacket stung me on the tongue as I tried to bite it in half, granted I had no idea it was on my sandwich at the time but still, talk about pain. Biologist Justin Schmidt, creator of the Schmidt Pain Sting Index, describes a yellow jacket sting as “Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine W. C. Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.” Yup, that aptly describes it. Luckily my coworker was able to get the stinger out which just goes to show how hard I bit that insect. Very rarely will Yellow Jackets lose their stingers, as they lack the barbs honeybees have, that way they can retain their stinger to sting again.

The worst was when I was driving my 1963 Rambler Classic sedan, and getting stung on my inner thigh (while wearing ’80s shorts) which ended up causing me to total my car in Kings Canyon (which is a whole ‘nother story for another time). As I said, I could do without them.

In California, we have several species of yellow jackets The most common are the native Western yellowjacket and the invasive European or German yellowjacket. One difference is in their evil little eyes (sorry, I’m letting my bias show), the Western Yellowjacket has a yellow ring around its eyes. Yet both are aggressive and can repeatedly sting, especially if you get near their nest. Western yellowjackets’ nests tend to be underground and the German Yellow jackets tend to be above ground, but both will use woodpiles or small spaces in old buildings for their nests too.

German Yellow Jacket nest in black sage bush

The best way to exist with them is through prevention. Clean up outdoor cooking areas, pick up fallen fruit in backyard orchards, and keep garbage and recycling cans closed. If you’re dining outdoors be aware of open drink containers and LOOK before you bite!  

I’ve found yellow jacket traps to be pretty much so useless in controlling them during the summer. The best way to use them is to put the traps out early in the spring where hopefully you can trap the previously fertilized queen as she emerges from diapause—the insect version of hibernation. If you can trap her before she starts her colony you’ve made a big impact because once the colony is established, they can soon grow to tens of thousands of wasps.

If you’re interested in finding a yellow jacket nest, go out on a clear early morning or late afternoon when the sun is low and the shadows deep. Watch a wasp rise from a sunny food or water source with a dark shadow behind it, as the sun-lit insect heads off, it will make a literal “beeline” back to its nest. Sometimes they will forage up to a quarter of a mile away from their nest. Take a compass bearing on the departure flight, or follow it and walk in that direction keeping an eye out for repeating trips of the wasps as they fly along that path from the food/water source to the nest. As you get closer to the nest you will encounter other beelines. That’s the time to slow down and take stock of your surroundings. Look for the telltale sign of the wasps quickly dropping down or slowly rising out of the ground. You’ve found the nest. I have located well over 50 nests this way.

If you absolutely need to treat it, bundle up, get the right ingredients, and go at dawn or dusk or better yet at night when all the critters are in the nest. Sometimes big nests will need to be dug up and treated again if you are truly trying to eradicate them.

Yes, some of us may think yellow jackets are just a**holes with wings, but deep down, I understand that they have a purpose. In the grand plan of nature, they are experts at cleaning up carrion and pollinating flowers, and I respect their tenacity. I just prefer they leave me out of their plans.