What is a yellow jacket? A yellow jacket is an insect that has yellow and black stripes on its abdomen. They are about half an inch long and the queen’s yellow coat is about three-quarters of an inch long. They have yellow coats that allow them to sting and unlike honey bees, they can sting once. Yellow jackets are often feared because of how bold they are and because they can sting again and again.
The yellow coats will eat small insects, fruit juice and nectar. Sweet things are referred to as candy or soda. That’s why you’ll often find them harassing you in your backyard when you have a crust. They also eat flies and caterpillars, so they are very important in the agricultural business.
Yellow jackets will nest in bushes, trees, underground and in many man-made structures, such as watch houses. Their nest is made of wood like pulp. They chew the yellow coats and spit out this pulp as fiber. Active colonies of yellow jackets do not survive the winter and do not use the same nest.
Yellow jacket colonies consist of workers, queens and males. The queens emerge in the spring time and enter a kind of paper nest where they lay their eggs. The small eggs turn into larvae which are fed by the queen. Then the small larvae turn into fertile females that work. Then the workers will come out and begin to expand the nest and take care of the queen. Then the other queens will grow in the nest and be fertilized by the yellow coat males, which die shortly after mating. Fertilized queens (those not yet starting the nest) leave at the first opportunity to find a place. winter The queen who started the nest actually dies. This concludes the life cycle under the yellow coat.
The reason I shared this information with you is because I found a yellow jaccom trap that actually works!! Excursion is now producing a yellow jacket for consumers to use. I’ll be honest I did some research before trying this product so here’s a little overview of the life cycle of a yellow jacket. The plot of the queen draws the yellow coat, which lays the eggs that start the world. The traps are so easy to set up, first open the box, and pull off the barrier cover, and slide it on top and then hang it (it’s actually huge as the chains twist the trap enclosed to hang it). They are only about 9 dollars which I have no problems paying if it means I can sit in the back without being bothered. The plot works fast, I’ve only had mine for two weeks and already there are a lot of yellow coats on the fly. This is also much safer than trying to spray the nest and kill them that way. You’re much less likely to get bitten by the trap versus the shower. Use your free stinger this summer!
