Yellowjacket Control In Alexandria VA

Yellowjackets In Alexandria VA

Yellowjackets are aggressive pests in Alexandria VA that possess a painful sting and bite. You’ll find these bright yellow and black insects in the backyard, at picnics and other outdoor activities. Yellowjacket nests are usually built underground, although some species will construct their nests in hollow logs, trees, attics, between walls, or under eaves of houses. An underground yellowjacket nest is difficult to locate because the entrance is about the size of a nickel. Most yellowjacket workers forage for food within 1,000 feet of their nest -- a distance of three football fields. In the middle of the season -- usually June or July -- yellowjackets are drawn to protein sources, such as hamburgers on the barbecue grill. During the late summer to early fall, they tend to shift their diet to sweets, including soda and juice.

Yellowjackets scavenge for meat and sweet liquids, which brings them into frequent contact with humans. Yellowjacket attacks can be deadly for people who are allergic to their stings. Yellowjackets are more aggressive than other stinging insects such as wasps, hornets, mud daubers or bees. Yellowjackets can both sting and bite - in fact, they will often bite to get a better grip to jab their stinger in. Since they don't lose their stinger, they can sting numerous times, and will do so unprovoked.

Yellowjackets vigorously defend their nests. Swarm attacks can occur when someone accidentally steps in or hits a nest opening. Ground vibrations can also trigger attacks from underground nests -- thus, mowing lawns can be hazardous, especially during the late summer season when colonies are at their largest.

Yellow Jacket Bees In Alexandria VA

Although yellowjackets' yellow and black stripes are similar to those of bees, and even though they are both types of stinging insects, yellow jackets are not bees. Rather, yellow jackets are wasps and differ from bees in a number of ways.

The bodies of bees are fuzzier and more rounded in shape, while yellow jackets are noticeably smoother and thinner. Yellow jackets' bodies are narrower between the thorax and abdomen. Unlike bees, which have stingers with pronounced barbs and can sting only once before dying, yellow jackets are equipped with lance-like stingers with much smaller barbs, and are capable of delivering multiple stings without dying.

Yellow jackets also differ from bees in behavior and habits. They are predatory and will consume other insects. Yellow jackets are also scavengers of human food, and can be found swarming around trash cans or picnic sites in Alexandria VA and the surrounding areas. Yellow jackets will also feed on nectar, but they depend primarily upon insects, meat and fish for nourishment. Most bee species are significantly less aggressive than yellow jackets, which are territorial and may sting at even the slightest provocation.

Yellow Jacket Wasps In Alexandria VA

Yellowjacket or yellow jacket is the common name in North America for certain predatory social wasps. They are known simply as "wasps" in other English-speaking countries. Most of the yellowjacket wasps found in Alexandria VA are black and yellow like the eastern yellowjacket and the aerial yellowjacket; however, some are black and white like the bald-faced hornet. Others may have the abdomen background color red instead of black. They can be identified by their distinctive markings, their occurrence only in colonies, and a characteristic, rapid, side-to-side flight pattern prior to landing. All females are capable of stinging. Yellowjackets are important predators of pest insects.

Ground Nesting Yellow Jackets In Alexandria VA

Ground nesting yellow jackets construct paper nests that may contain thousands of larvae and adult workers. In Alexandria VA, these nests are typically located underground in abandoned rodent burrows or in other enclosed spaces such as tree cavities, wall cavities, wood piles, and dense ivy. During the fall, young queens mate and find protected areas (such as fallen logs, tree cavities, cracks in buildings, etc.) where they remain for the duration of the winter. When spring arrives, queens select nesting sites and begin the process of colony initiation (nest construction, deposition of eggs, and hunting for food). Once adult workers emerge, they take over many of the tasks of nest maintenance so that the queen can remain within the safety of the nest and lay eggs. Foraging ground-nesting yellow jacket workers commonly come into contact with people who are eating outdoors and may at times become extremely aggressive. The colony grows throughout the summer and into the fall, and eventually begins production of males and queens. When rain and/or freezing temperatures return, nests typically die out, and newly mated queens find protected areas to overwinter so the process can begin anew in the spring.