Talk:Yellowjacket

message: Here in NW North America yellow jackets are ubiquitous.  They seem to live for the most part unnoticed until late summer or fall.  Life experience seems to show that they become agressive during the last warm days of the year.  I would like to see an explanation of this behavior in the article.  Also autoritative extermination techniques. 68.118.53.205 (talk) 22:03, 20 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: More on behavior needed

message: The scientific classification charts on wasp, hornet, and yellowjacket are not consistent, making it impossible to compare how closely related these insects are.  I am not familiar enough with them to make the correction.  --zandperl 04:15, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Scientific classification consistency 

message: I found an easy and efficient way to destroy a nest of yellowjackets (living in the ground) in an Audibon insect field guide.  The nest normally has one tunnel/door, and blocking it will only cause them to dig a new tunnel.  Instead, cover their doorway with a large clear bowl and seal the edges with mud.  Since they can get out of their doorway, they will not dig a new one, and within about a week they will starve to death.
Install the bowl at night for safety, and NEVER wear a "headlight" (forehead mounted flashlight).  If awakened, the wasps will go right for any light source.  (from one who knows!)  -Andy
It's far easier to go out at night and spend 15 seconds spraying the entrance with bug spray.  Voila, next morning they are all dead.  If you don't know where the nest is you can bait them as described here: Successful Removal of German Yellowjackets by Toxic Baiting.  Note: Fipronil is the active ingredient in Frontline flea and tick pet treatment. Cloudswrest (talk) 00:20, 30 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Getting rid of yellowjackets 

message: they must be smarter than you think!  Further research is needed based on my recent experience.  I stumbled upon a nest and a couple of dozen chased me for 100 yards and somehow they knew to stay to my backside when I stopped and tried to swat them away.  They must be able to know an aggressors's front and back side.  this is my conclusion; or else, they are really shy.  I do not know how to confirm this theory , but it was most convincing after two run-ins that resulted in numerous bites.  I do not want to destroy their nest until further research can be done.
Well, honey bees can identify faces, as can many animals. Honey bees will actually attack your face by preference. I don't know if yellow jackets have a preference. I would have though they would attack a face first as well as that would have the most immediate effect.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.132.186.35 (talk) 14:47, 20 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  evading their stings

message: I was stung on Saturday, I stepped on a nest while weed whacking, I have had allergic reactions to them in the past but was lucky to have already taken an antihistamine for ragweed in the morning.  I was stung twice and had to kill two that followed me into the house.  For the next two days everytime I left the back door and went to any part of my back yard (not near the nest at all) I was "found" by one or two who would start diving at me at which point I would return to the house and watch out the window at many gathered near the spot I had been standing.  (no, I'm not a paranoid nut- in fact I pride myself on remaining calm so as not to get stung as I love to garden and had managed not to get stung for 10 years.)  I wondered if the sting left me emitting a scent, and that was confirmed by the Harvard Page mentioned in this article.  I am wondering how long this lasts- two days later and two showers later it was still in effect.  Does anyone know the answer to this?  
I have hopefully killed the nest- by spraying it at night. Killing the nest is the right thing to do, while I love the diversity of my organic yard and garden they are the one species that is totally without any sense of humor - and is so aggressive that there is no alternative.
Court2000 12:33, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Showers will not remove chemicals left in your clothing; since you stepped in the nest, I would suspect your shoes. Dyanega 16:18, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Studies have shown that bees (yes, I know these aren't bees) fly by landmarks. If Yellow jackets are similair, It's possible that they identified you as a menace by your general shape and color. Speculation anyway --Lendorien 16:35, 22 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  they know you 

message: If any one cares. 
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060717/NEWS02/607170317/1009
Zerath13
:I saw a nest of this size many years ago, so I don't think the finding represents an invasive species. Most likely it's a chance event, where colonies survive winter and have multiple queens. Pollinator 17:51, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Giant nests 

message: I have stumbled on 2 nest on our property.  I as I was moving hay and you guessed it I was stung but only once.  They had built their net in the bales of hay. It was amazing. Yesterday I was leveling a mound where a tree had fallen and uprooted.  I was stung 6 times as I ran for the pool (up hill and 50 ft instead of the pond that was 10 ft away.  My husband and I walked down last evening and found the nest.  We sprayed wasp and hornet killer in the hole it did not seem to bother them.  They just came flying out. Hindsite - instead of spraying we should have closed it off.  I thought if there is a front door then there is a backdoor too.  Unknown to me (and him) my husband had actually found the nest last week when mowing.  They chased him, he jumped off the mower, they attacked the mower and several stole his beer (they just fell in they didn't actually carry it off.  He nor I ever thought about them being underground. 
One of the stings (on my bicep) is not giving me any problem although it is quite alarming to have a large red ring around each sting. One stung me on one of knuckles through my leather glove it is not as bad but itches like crazy.  One stung me on my forearm, it it bruised, swollen, painful and itches.  The last 3 stings were on my back.  No swelling but is painfull and itches.
I am sure it was comical to see me run, scream, swat and dive fully clothed into the pool.  I am thankful the pool was there. (My husband asked me why I didn't jump into the pond  Yea right.) For several minutes, I could barely get my breath, I couldn't speak.  I am not sure if that was reactions from the sting or scared to almost death. Cla10544 12:27, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: My experience with wasp and hornet killer is that it often doesn't. It just sets off the alarms, and make stings more likely. Ground nesters can easily and safely be eliminated with a bucket of soapy water. But in most cases they are only a problem for a short time, and 99.9% of the colonies die out with the first good freeze. Pollinator 17:51, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Stung September 9 2006 

message: Maybe I'm missing something, but why does the gallery on Yellowjacket page show the nest of a paper wasp? Carl 21:12, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Gallery 

message: I'm a truck driver in south-eastern Australia. I have seen yellowjackets (commonly referred to as European Wasps down under) along the entire east and south coast. They are not native to Australia from what I understand, however they are a major pest in the warmer months and they have not been affected by colder winters (although you don't really notice them during these times). If nests are found on public land (this rarely happens) it is the responsibility of the local council or shire (probably what you call county in the US) to destroy them however this rarely happens due to various reasons. 
These wasps are a part of everyday life for every long distance/interstate truck driver in Australia. They consistently swarm around the front of the rig when you have stopped feeding on mainly moths and larger insects which have been squashed on the front and baked on by the sun. In warm sunny conditions you usually find anywhere betweeen 5-10 wasps swarming on the front of the wehicle. Walking around the rig you are constantly followed by them particularly if you are wearing high visibilty work clothing. I know of several cases where drivers have been stung just by accidently touching or even brushing up against one, fortunately none were serious cases. Often they become trapped in the cab if you start driving again and get quite aggresive if they are unable to get out. 
I spent a short amount of time in the pest control industry before becoming a truck driver and am looking to make traps to place on the front of the truck when stopped for lengthy periods. Wasps, like bees, cannot fly straight up and a simple trap can be made from a a soft drink container (can also be bought from hardware stores) however something must be placed in the trap to attract the wasp. Am hoping anyone could help me with this. Have had limited success in the past however am unable to find anything the wasps are strongly attracted to. (previously have caught many flies and other insects however no wasps). Some have suggested putting the remains of other insects in the trap however this would be very difficult and there are many risks (disease) involved. Information on Wikipedia says the wasps feed on nectar am unsure where to find this readily availabe and in what forms so that I could put it into a trap
Any help would be greatly appreciatedTannerNT 11:05, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Making traps 

message: Is the yellowjacket group monophyletic? Are all species within Vespula and Dolichovespula considered Yellowjackets? —Pengo 22:22, 21 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: No. "Yellowjacket" isn't a taxanomic group, but a common name for a lot of species of wasps with a strong resemblance. It includes all of one genus and most of another. There is a good reason for that resemblance, they are Müllerian mimics. The scheme works on people as well as on birds or other preditors, and we quickly group them as one. Several of the Dolichovespula are black and white. In actual common usage nobody is going to call them yellowjackets. North Americans will usually use the name "hornet". Maybe that can be worked into the article now that we have separate genus articles. Meggar 21:43, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Monophyletic? 

message: Do yellowjackets eat only nectar as adults like most other wasps? The reason I ask is because "common wisdom" around parts of NY state is that they are carnivores, especially since they seem to hang around places like supermarket dumpsters where rotting meat is.
Well, the babies are carnivores! I have seen adults attack Marbled Orb Weavers, and just rescued a Honeybee from one.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.166.158.85 (talk) 19:22, 16 September 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Diet? 

message: The clemson.edu link is dead. I'm going to remove it. 72.94.11.71 22:37, 28 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Dead link

message: Some of the sections need citations. I have marked them as such.  —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Spryde (talk • contribs). 
:That's a little bit silly, frankly. The entire section on life history, for instance, is largely from a single reference, given in the references section. It would be pretty darn excessive to put a citation to that one reference at the end of every single sentence, or even every paragraph. The purpose of putting those tags is cases when you think that the information there is LIKELY TO BE CHALLENGED. There are literally thousands of articles in WP discussing various animals, and only a very tiny minority have every section containing actual citations. That's because most such facts are not likely to be challenged. All this tagging serves to accomplish is make it look like the article is not based on authoritative sources, when that is not at all the case. Dyanega 23:27, 22 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I understand. The purpose of citations is also to ensure that we know what it is supposed to be and to verify the information. Without a cite, I can't verify it. I personally know very little about the yellowjacket (other than being stung recently) and did not know the source of some of the information. Also, around here at least, the timeline is much later (emerge in June to July) due to the late thaw we have. I am not a SME on this particular subject so if the sources in the references below already have the info, tag the end of the paragraph and remove the unref tag. I did not mean any disrespect or anything. Just wanted to ensure the article was "bulletproof" Cheers! Spryde 11:33, 24 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Citations

message: If bees make honey what do wasps make? Mustard?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.243.231.12 (talk) 18:26, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Honey bees store food inside the nest, but yellowjackets do not. They don't "make" anything. They're predators, and they feed their larvae chewed-up prey directly, instead of trying to store it. Dyanega (talk) 18:33, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

text: Birds, lizards, bears, badgers, raccoons, that sort of thing. Even people do - it's easy to get wasp larvae or pupae in Japan, for instance. Dyanega (talk) 23:50, 2 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  What do wasps eat? 

message: "the venom, like most bee/wasp venoms, is primarily dangerous to those who are allergic, unless a victim receives a large numbers of stings"
Good to know that if an allergic person is stung a large number of times they aren't in danger anymore. I'm pretty sure there needs to be an "only" in there somewhere. ;) Also, no 's' on numbers. I'll go ahead and change that.Logan1337 (talk) 01:19, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Awful wording 

message: while at work I stepped on a nest and was attack by what it seemed a group but can't really determine. I  was stung on several parts of my body one being my earlope.. I ran next to one of my co-workers to no availe they seemed to make me their primary target. My co workers said it must have been the orange shirt i was wearing. Boy I wish i didn't have that color on that day.....  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.192.162.7 (talk) 05:44, 11 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  boy does it hurt 

message: honey,and flowers are the yellow jackets favorite food.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.172.221.85 (talk) 00:01, 1 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  favorite food 

message: The Life Cycle section of the current article appears to have been copied and pasted from an Ohio State factsheet: .  Even citing the factsheet would be insufficient, since so much has been copied verbatim, from the looks.  I don't want to blank the information, but it appears to need significant rewriting and citing. Some jerk on the Internet (talk) 13:22, 1 June 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Possible Plagiarism - 'Life Cycle' Section 

message: To clarify the reason for moving the article back to the original orthography: the insect name is the former (a single word, no hyphen), not the latter (two words, hyphenated or not), easily demonstrated using any authoritative source (the most definitive being ). While it is true that many non-experts have written the name in the latter form, this does not make it appropriate; it is the same sort of thing as "dragonfly" versus "dragon fly" or "dragon-fly" - just because you can find citations to sources that use the latter does not make that variant correct or authoritative. Dyanega (talk) 20:09, 4 November 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Yellowjacket" versus "Yellow Jacket" 

message: Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that :File:Face of a Southern Yellowjacket Queen (Vespula squamosa).jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on December 28, 2010. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2010-12-28. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks! howcheng  {chat} 02:33, 27 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[:File:Face of a Southern Yellowjacket Queen (Vespula squamosa).jpg]] to appear as POTD soon 

message: There is nothing here about allergic reactions to the venom (or in wasp either). I have never had a problem with honeybees, but I have had a severe reaction to multiple yellowjacket stings on two occasions. Does anyone know something about that? Shocking Blue (talk) 22:28, 28 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Allergic Reaction

message: I have never EVER seen any wasp the size that is cited here on this page. I live in the UK so I am guessing that the yellowjacket is not very common in the UK. 
I was reading comments regarding the name above and how people in the UK would not know this species as a yellowjacket.. well I don't know this species at all. I live in semi-rural north wales and have visited london in the summer and never seen a wasp so small, they've all been at least 1.5cm in length, my entire life. so I think any discussion about naming is moot.  also I think that there needs to be some mention of the species and how common it is in the UK. I'm sure there is a bbc article or something about it.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.172.237.137 (talk) 12:57, 10 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: size

message: I had some yellerjackets that built a nest in my outside window seal...right next to my window AC. I couldn't get a spray can in there at the correct angle to do any good spraying. Spraying their exit just don't work. I pondered on what I could do about them. I figured since folks could get rid of moths with mothballs, that might do the trick. However, I did not want the house smelling like mothballs. So I went to Walmart and got sented mothblocks...the kind you hang in the outhouse or toilet to make it smell good or better. Sure enough, it worked. Later that night I had dead and dying bees on my floor in the house. As a matter of fact, I had this to happen every day for pretty near a week. But it finally got rid of those boogers.
Rowdy Ray  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rowdy Ray (talk • contribs) 02:30, 10 July 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Use mothblocks or mothballs on hard-to-get-to nests

message: This is an article but I could be expanded. I have a few comments:
1. "At peak size, reproductive cells are built with new males and queens produced."
This sentence needs to be reworked. It just doesn't sound good.
2. "It is bold and aggressive, and if provoked, it can sting repeatedly and painfully"
"painfully" really sounds silly in the sentence. I would suggest using something else.
3. Is it necessary to list a hundred different schools that relate to the yellow jacket?
ICE77 (talk) 06:50, 14 July 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Comments and suggestions 

message: user ‎Dyanega removed my attempt to post the yellow vests movement, also known as the yellow jacket movement, into the "In popular culture" section on this page, stating that it was not cited anywhere as being referred to as the insect, and that it is a bad translation. Other than perhaps questioning the translation skill or motivation of people reading these news articles, or the ability for persons to develop metaphorical connections with current events and insects, I would like point out that the Columbus Blue Jackets mascot is included in the "In popular culture" section without a reference. I do not know what a blue jacket is, but it warrants inclusion by at least user Dyanaga. Please reconsider including the protest group with the same name as well. Smellyshirt5 (talk) 15:18, 11 December 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: You made a valid point; I hadn't noticed that there was no link showing the team mascot in question, so I found a news article that did so. Dyanega (talk) 16:54, 11 December 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: Good ole Fox News is referring to the protesters as the yellow jackets now. I'm waiting in anticipation for this update. They may make an insect connection soon. https://www.foxnews.com/world/yellow-vest-protesters-take-to-streets-of-france-for-fifth-week-as-macron-appeals-for-order Smellyshirt5 (talk) 17:42, 15 December 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Yellow jacket movement in France inclusion in "In popular culture" section 

message: In addition to the various real sports teams, it seems that a reference to Yellowjackets (TV Series) would be appropriate.  Any reason not to add it?C.prettyman (talk) 19:49, 13 January 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: Because the link you gave evidently doesn't have a corresponding Wikipedia article. If one existed, maybe a link would be appropriate. Dyanega (talk) 20:36, 13 January 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Yellowjackets (TV Series inclusion in "In popular culture" section