Yellow jackets nests are well under-way throughout the state of New Jersey as well as other areas in the United States. Yellow jacket wasps are fierce competitors for food and work diligently to create a great nesting site for their growing young. The queen wasp continues to produce eggs in the well sheltered area of the nest which is protected by the worker wasps. It would be difficult for predators to do damage to a well-established yellow jacket wasp nest.
The most common place that yellow jacket nests can be found is underground in abandoned rodent burrows. Sometimes nests will also be found hanging from trees, hidden in bushes, hanging from soffits, or even in wall voids that the queen found when initially looking for a good nesting site.
Most homeowners will encounter yellow jackets at this time of year strictly by accident. Grooming overgrown bushes or trimming limbs in a tree can disturb or even expose a well-hidden yellow jacket nest. Yellow jackets are sensitive to vibrations and are threatened by the sound of lawn mowers, even if they do not run directly over the entrance hole to their colony.
Once a person or their machinery is determined to be a threat by yellow jackets, serious trouble will surely follow. One yellow jacket will send the alarm signal to other yellow jackets that they are under attack, even if they are not. Since negotiation is not an option, the only thing that a homeowner who is suddenly under the attack of angry and aggressive yellow jackets can do is get away.
Yellow jacket stings are the number one insect that causes people to seek emergency help throughout the United States.
Please check back for the conclusion on Wednesday.