Why do yellowjackets bother us so?
Yellowjacket colonies survive by sending out foragers to scour the countryside for sweets and meats. The foraging wasps must collect enough sugar and protein to support the growing hordes of larvae, the busy workers, and eventually, new queens. To get their sugar fix, yellowjackets search out the sweet secretion of aphids and scale insects, called honeydew, which collects on leaves and branches as it falls from the sap-sucking insects. Hunting for other critters like caterpillars, spiders, centipedes, flies and damselflies provides the colony with protein. Foragers also sidle up to the bar with crows and vultures, and industriously carve away fleshy morsels from carrion with these other scavengers. And because yellowjackets are born to scavenge, they have one particularly profitable food provider: people. As with other forms of wildlife, there is often a conflict between yellowjackets and people competing for the same space at a state park, a well-manicured back yard, or a county fair.
