Yellowjackets

[tv1217]

Anybody know how many new queens an average nest produces for overwintering? There's a nest in our walls somewhere and I must have killed at least 10 that I'm assuming are queens because they considerably larger than the workers I've been seeing.

 

[gus1989]

It's a lot more then I would have imagined. I hope your nest isn't a big one. Check it out - (even if only a third of them were queens, it could be 3,000 to 5,000 of them!).

Life cycle and habits

Yellowjackets are social hunters living in colonies containing workers, queens and males. Colonies are annual with only inseminated queens overwinterOverwinter

To overwinter is to pass through or wait out the winter season, or to pass through that period of the year when ?winter? conditions make normal activity or even survival difficult or near impossible....
ing. Fertilized queens occur in protected places 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 eggs are laid. After eggs hatch from the 30 to 50 brood cells, the queen feeds the young larvae for about 18 to 20 days. Larvae pupate, emerging 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 and 5,000 workers and a nest of 10,000 and 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 overwinterOverwinter

To overwinter is to pass through or wait out the winter season, or to pass through that period of the year when ?winter? conditions make normal activity or even survival difficult or near impossible....
. 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 and die, as does the foundress queen. Abandoned nests rapidly decompose and disintegrate during the winter but can persist as long as they are kept dry but are rarely used again.

In the spring, the cycle is repeated.

 

[x10]

good info, I usually have one nest per fall somewhere around the house and they usually get me at least once before I get them.

Thanks

 

[tv1217]

Between the ones we've whacked with the swatter, trapped in a soap cup, and just died, the number is probably in the thousands. Hopefully there aren't a whole lot left.

One can only hope they start dying soon, but this fall is warm so far.

 

[JByer323]

I have it on good authority that kerosene is a great way to get rid of them...

 

[tv1217]

I don't think spraying kerosene into the walls is a good idea.

 

[gus1989]

Good thing I read your disclaimer before posting a reply - LOL

 

[JByer323]

I don't think spraying kerosene into the walls is a good idea.

Hey, it'd get rid of them! You don't even really need to light the stuff, but if you don't, you're missing all the fun!

Good thing I read your disclaimer before posting a reply - LOL

Something I've learned in life is that I need a disclaimer.