Yellowjackets Traditional Cache

Eastern Yellowjacket

The Yellowjacket is a member of the wasp family with 17 native varieties found throughout most of the US. They are sometimes mistaken for honey bees but their vivid yellow and black marking, body shape, and habits are distinctly different.   

Even though at times they can be a real annoyance, 
yellowjackets are considered beneficial since they are an important predator of pest insects and the are pollinators.

German Yellowjacket

Throughout spring and summer the workers will routinely leave the nest to search for insects as a source of food for themselves and the larvae in the nest.  In late summer adult yellowjackets change their eating habit and feed on sugar rich items like flower nectar and tree sap.  It is during this time period they become a real nuisance to picnickers seeking out those sugary picnic items.   By late autumn all the workers and the old queen will die off.   New queens that were born in the nest will overwinter in a protected area like a tree stump or log.  Come next spring the new queens will repeat the process with their own colonies. 

Be careful as you search for this cache as some abnormally large yellowjackets have been spotted in the immediate area.

Western Yellowjacket