Yellow Jackets

Behavior and Habitat of Yellow Jackets

Yellow jackets are social insects that have a caste system, which is a division of labor between sterile female workers, males, and reproductive female queens. The queen builds a small paper nest and lays several eggs which hatch and mature into sterile female adult workers. Nests are constructed of several layers of comb made of tiny bits of wood fiber chewed into paper-like pulp. Yellow jackets build large paper nests in the ground, in tree stumps near the ground, or in openings into structures (attics, crawl spaces, etc...). These nests can be very large, containing thousands of wasps, which will forage out up to 300 yards away in search of food. Though the adults mainly feed on plant nectar, they will search for protein-based food sources, such as insects, small animals, or even human food, to feed to the larvae in the colony. In the fall, especially when temperatures begin to get cooler and days shorter, the Yellow jackets will begin searching for additional protein sources for the overwintering hives.