The yellow jacket season begins in the winter as the inseminated new queen hibernates until the warm days
of spring when she emerges and begins to build her signature paper nest which is constructed from plant fibers that she chews
(not as common are nests made of wood). Its common to find yellow jacket gray or tan paper nests aerial, underground or in
a structure. Yellow jacket queens hibernate under bark, hollow logs or fallen trees. She survives on fat reserve build up
to overwinter.
Once the queen has emerged from hibernation she locates a site, builds the nest, forages for food, lays and feeds
the first 50 or so brood and single-handedly protects the nest. She does this until the eggs hatch and the first infertile
mature female worker bees take over all duties- all except laying eggs. The yellow jacket queen devotes herself to solely
laying eggs at this point and the nest begins to fill with smaller workers. The colony expands through out the summer months
and into fall. As winter approaches the queen lays eggs with male wasps and fertile female (future queens).
This expansion
continues until the hive reaches numbers in the thousands. The maximum amount of workers is between 4000 to 5000 yellow jacket
workers and total number in one colony is between 10,000 to 15,000. A phenomenon has been documented in Florida, Georgia
and Alabama that some yellow jacket nests are much larger and it has been theorized that either multiple queens are co-existing
in one colony or that warmer, 
shorter winters with earlier spring are giving the yellow jackets a chance to survive winter and forage for food sooner.
Yellow jackets are often confused with
honey bees even tough they are not of the bees species, they have similar ways to come and go from their nests. Both insects
have airport like activity and are aggressive if their queen or colony are threatened. Yellow jackets have been nicknamed
“ meat bees” as they will feed on meat, fish and other insects in addition to nectar for nourishment.
Both kinds of insects are important to
the environment, yellow jackets pollinate only a fraction compared to bees. These insects are easily triggered to sting and
will do so repeatedly until the threat has been defeated or retreats. Yellow jacket wasps are constructed so that they can
sting multiple times without doing harm to themselves, which is a major difference between honey bees and yellow jackets
wasps.
Yellow jacket wasps are found in both
underground and within structures and should be approached with 
caution. Yellow jackets are known for they're aggressive nature and will attack if threatened. The nests can be treated
with pesticides to get rid of the infestation but be sure to terminate the queen and and destroy the nest so that the brood
(the larvae) do not hatch. If the infestation is underground its necessary to dig up the nest. If its in a structure it is
necessary to access the cavity to remove the nest.
Queen on hive with worker and capped cells
