It’s summer, and the Yellow jackets are back in force.

Should we be alarmed?

Well, it helps to know a little about these interesting creatures.

It turns out that Yellow jackets are a type of paper wasp. Paper wasps get their name because they build structures out of a special paper made by adding saliva to chewed-up plant fibers.

Found Coast to Coast
In different parts of the country people call them hornets and meat bees, too. Whatever their name, yellow jackets can be found across the United States. In fact, each region usually has at least one species that nests above ground and one species that nests below ground. Both types share similar life histories.

Subjects Of The Queen
Yellow jackets, like some species of bees, ant wasps, and termites, live in colonies where many workers serve a single egg-laying queen. The colonies begin to form in early spring, when fertile females emerge from the sheltered locations where they spent the winter and search for nest sites.

At first the nest is just a spherical shell the size of a golf ball enclosing a honeycomb structure where the female lays five or six eggs. The eggs hatch into larvae, which the mother then […]