Yellowjacket

"Yellow Jacket" redirects here. For the town in the United States, see Yellow Jacket, Colorado.

For other uses, see Yellowjacket (disambiguation).

Yellowjacket
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Vespidae
Subfamily:	Vespinae
Genus:	Vespula or Dolichovespula

Yellowjacket is the common name in North America for predatory wasps of the genera Vespula and Dolichovespula. Members of these genera are known simply as "wasps" in other English-speaking countries. Most of these are black and yellow; some are black and white (such as the bald-faced hornet, Dolichovespula maculata), while others may have the abdomen background color red instead of black. They can be identified by their distinctive markings, small size (similar to a honey bee), their occurrence only in colonies, and a characteristic, rapid, side to side flight pattern prior to landing. All females are capable of stinging. Yellowjackets are important predators of pest insects.^[1]

Identification

Face of a southern yellowjacket (Vespula squamosa)

Yellowjackets are often called "bees" as they are similar in size and appearance, and both sting, but are actually wasps. A typical yellowjacket worker is about 12 mm (0.5 in) long, with alternating bands on the abdomen; the queen is larger, about 19 mm (0.75 in) long (the different patterns on the abdomen help separate various species). Workers are sometimes confused with honey bees, especially when flying in and out of their nests. Yellowjackets, in contrast to honey bees, are not covered with tan-brown dense hair on their bodies, They do not carry pollen and do not have the flattened hairy hind legs used to carry it. They have a lance-like stinger with small barbs and typically sting repeatedly,^[1] though occasionally the stinger becomes lodged and pulls free of the wasp's body; the venom, like most bee and wasp venoms, is primarily only dangerous to humans if allergic, unless a victim is stung many times (main article: Bee sting). All species have yellow or white on the face. Mouthparts are well-developed with strong mandibles for capturing and chewing insects, with a proboscis for sucking nectar, fruit, and other juices. Yellowjackets build nests in trees, shrubs, or in protected places such as inside human-made structures (attics, hollow walls or flooring, in sheds, under porches, and eaves of houses), or in soil cavities, mouse burrows, etc. They build them from wood fiber they chew into a paper-like pulp.

Many other insects exhibit protective mimicry of aggressive, stinging yellowjackets; in addition to numerous bees and wasps (Müllerian mimicry), the list includes some flies, moths, and beetles (Batesian mimicry).

Yellowjackets' closest relatives, the hornets, closely resemble them but have a much bigger head, seen especially in the large distance from the eyes to the back of the head.^[1]

Life cycle and habits

A Vespula squamosa queen

Yellowjackets are social hunters living in colonies containing workers, queens, and males. Colonies are annual with only inseminated queens overwintering. Fertilized queens occur in protected places such as hollow logs, in stumps, under bark, in leaf litter, in soil cavities, and human-made structures. Queens emerge during the warm days of late spring or early summer, select a nest site, and build a small paper nest in which they lay eggs. After eggs hatch from the 30 to 50 brood cells, the queen feeds the young larvae for about 18 to 20 days. After that, the workers in the colony will take over caring for the larvae, feeding them with chewed up food, meat or fruit (called trophallaxis). Larvae pupate emerge later as small, infertile females called workers. By mid-summer, the first adult workers emerge and assume the tasks of nest expansion, foraging for food, care of the queen and larvae, and colony defense.

From this time until her death in the autumn, the queen remains inside the nest, laying eggs. The colony then expands rapidly, reaching a maximum size of 4,000 to 5,000^[2] workers and a nest of 10,000 to 15,000 cells in late summer. At peak size, reproductive cells are built with new males and queens produced. Adult reproductives remain in the nest fed by the workers. New queens build up fat reserves to overwinter. Adult reproductives leave the parent colony to mate. After mating, males quickly die, while fertilized queens seek protected places to overwinter. Parent colony workers dwindle, usually leaving the nest to die, as does the foundress queen. Abandoned nests rapidly decompose and disintegrate during the winter. They can persist as long as they are kept dry, but are rarely used again. In the spring, the cycle is repeated; weather in the spring is the most important factor in colony establishment. Adults feed primarily on items rich in sugars and carbohydrates such as fruits, flower nectar, and tree sap, and larvae feed on proteins such as insects, meats, and fish. Adult workers chew and condition the meat fed to the larvae. Larvae in return secrete a sugar material relished by the adults; this exchange is a form of trophallaxis. In late summer foraging workers change their food preference from meats to ripe, decaying fruits, or scavenge human garbage, sodas, picnics—where they are a common and unwelcome nuisance—etc., since larvae in the nest fail to meet requirements as a source of sugar.

Notable species

• European yellowjackets (the German wasp, Vespula germanica and the common wasp, Vespula vulgaris) were originally native to Europe, but are now established in North America, southern Africa, New Zealand, and eastern Australia.
• The Eastern yellowjacket (Vespula maculifrons), and western yellowjacket (Vespula pensylvanica), are native to North America.
• The Southern yellowjacket, Vespula squamosa
• Bald-faced hornets, Dolichovespula maculata, belong among the yellowjackets rather than the true hornets, but are not usually called "yellowjackets" because of their ivory-on-black coloration.^{[citation needed]}
• Tree wasp, Dolichovespula sylvestris^{[citation needed]}

Two-year yellowjacket nest

Nest

Dolichovespula species (for example, the aerial yellowjacket, Dolichovespula arenaria, and the bald-faced hornet, Dolichovespula maculata) tend to create exposed aerial nests (a feature shared with true hornets, which has led to some confusion as to the use of the name "hornet").

Vespula species, in contrast, build concealed nests, usually underground.

Yellowjacket nests usually last for only one season, dying off in winter. The nest is started by a single queen, called the "foundress". Typically, a nest can reach the size of a basketball by the end of a season. In parts of Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, and southwestern coastal areas of the United States, the winters are mild enough to allow nest overwintering. Nests that survive multiple seasons become massive and often possess multiple egg-laying queens.^[3][4]

In the United States

In 1975, the German yellowjacket first appeared in Ohio, and has now become the dominant species over the eastern yellowjacket. It is bold and aggressive, and if provoked, it can sting repeatedly and painfully. It will mark aggressors, and will pursue them if provoked. The German yellowjacket builds its nests in cavities (not necessarily underground) with the peak worker population in temperate areas between 1,000 and 3,000 individuals between May to August, each colony producing several thousand new reproductives after this point, through November. The eastern yellowjacket builds its nests underground, also with the peak worker population between 1,000 and 3,000 individuals similar to the German yellowjacket. Nests are built entirely of wood fiber (usually weathered or dead) and are completely enclosed (football or soccer-ball shaped) except for a small opening (entrance) at the bottom. The color of the paper is highly dependent on the source of the wood fibers used. The nests contain multiple, horizontal tiers of combs (10 or more) within. Larvae hang down in combs.^{[citation needed]}

In the southeastern United States, where southern yellowjacket (Vespula squamosa) nests may persist through the winter, colony sizes of this species may reach 100,000 adult wasps.^{[citation needed]} The same kind of nest expansion has occurred in Hawaii with the invasive western yellowjacket Vespula pensylvanica.^[5]

In popular culture

The yellowjacket's most visible place in American popular culture is as a mascot. Notable college and university examples include the American International College, Baldwin-Wallace College, Black Hills State University, California State University, Sacramento, Cedarville University, Defiance College, Georgia Institute of Technology, Graceland University, Howard Payne University, LeTourneau University, Montana State University Billings, Randolph-Macon College, University of Rochester, University of Wisconsin–Superior, and Waynesburg University.

Notable secondary schools and school districts include Alvin High School (Alvin, TX) Sprayberry High School (Marietta, Georgia), Thomas County Central High School, (Thomasville, GA), Xavier University Preparatory High School (New Orleans, Louisiana), Berkeley High School (Berkeley, California), Freeport Area School District (Sarver, Pennsylvania), Llano High, Junior High, Elementary, and Packsaddle Elementary Schools (Llano County Texas), Cleburne High School (Cleburne, Texas), Mount Vernon High School (Mount Vernon, Ohio), Newark High School (Newark, Delaware), Osbourn Park High School (Manassas, Virginia), Sabinal School District (Sabinal, Texas), Perrysburg High School (Perrysburg, Ohio), Sidney High School (Sidney, Ohio), Girard High School (Girard, Pennsylvania), Vincent High School (Vincent, Alabama), Thomas Jefferson High School (Council Bluffs, Iowa), Irmo Middle School, Irmo High School (Irmo, South Carolina) and Oxnard High School (Oxnard, California), Saint Augustine High School (Saint John's County FLA), Lee County Senior High School (Sanford, NC), George Washington Carver High School (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) Northampton High School (Eastville, Virginia), Coffee High School (Florence, Alabama), Blue Ridge High School (Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona), and Oneonta High School (Oneonta, New York).

Also has been used as the name of multiple superheroes, including: as the third superhero identity of Marvel Comics character Hank Pym; the villainess turned hero Rita Demara, who stole the identity from Pym; and YellowJacket, a Charlton Comics character who got his powers from being bitten by mutant yellowjackets.

See also

• German wasp, Vespula germanica
• Common wasp, Vespula vulgaris
• Wasp
• Biological pest control
• Volucella pellucens

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} Akre, R.D. et al. (1980) The yellowjackets of America north of Mexico. USDA Agriculture Handbook 552. 102 pp.
2. ^ Lives of Social Insects Peggy Larson p13
3. ^ Yellow jackets building enormous nests | TuscaloosaNews.com
4. ^ Extension Daily: What is Causing Super-sized Yellow Jacket Nests?
5. ^ "Response of Native Plant Communities to Alien Species Management on the Island of Hawaii" on the Hawaiian Cooperative Studies Program website

External links

• Yellowjacket fact sheet providing information on habits, habitat and threats
• "Yellowjackets and Hornets of Florida" on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site
• Successful Removal of German Yellow Jackets by Toxic Baiting