These persistent scavengers raid cookouts for meats and sweets, patrol dumpsters and garbage cans for scraps, and will steal pet food from the dish. Nest size can vary from several hundred to a few thousand. Each wasp nest starts new in the spring and is enlarged as the colony builds up to hundreds of individuals. The nest is largest in the autumn and not reused the following year. Mated queens overwinter away from the nest in protected outside locations or in structures.
Most wasps abandon their nests in the autumn, with the mated queens overwintering.
A queen killed in the fall or early spring will eliminate an entire nest. During the late summer to early fall a wasp's nest reaches its peak size and nest building ceases. As the wasps increase their foraging activity, the number of encounters with people increases. These encounters are often of the worst type and result in someone being stung. The aggressive nature of wasps combined with the increased numbers of wasps makes them a real nuisance.