As much as I hate them they do have some good traits. One year when they were particularly bad and I was cursing them, I saw a number of them working the vegetable garden. They cleaned every cabbage worm out of the cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli I was growing, I didn't find one worm in anything that summer.
This year we have numerous paper wasp nests around, we only dispose of the ones we have to. These wasps seem to ignore us even when we're close, not like yellow jackets which are just plain mean.

Our neighbor had to dispose of a huge hornet's nest last weekend, these were the black and white ones. It was hanging from the eaves right above a sitting area.

We've never had the amount of paper wasps and hornets around that we have now, it seemed as the numbers of honey bees were decreasing wasps and hornets moved in. One good thing for the first time in about 5 years we have honey bees, we lost most of our honey bee's here on the island, but the powers that be have lifted the ban on importing them to the island so things are starting to turn around. Yellow Jackets haven't been bad so far this year yet, I hope it stays that way.

I haven't seen one swallowtail butterfly this year, last year I saw one, I wonder if it's because of the huge numbers of wasps we've had here the last couple of years. The only ones I've seen are the cabbage butterflies and some tiny cinnamon colored unknown.

Annette

I have a few yellow jackets and wasps. I actually have a few bumble bees this year - and I mean real bumbles. Not the imported European mini-mes!! They annoy me, as they are prolific, and give a mean bite. I wonder if they are out competing the honey bees? They bring them in to pollinate greenhouses, so I am surprised to see them out here, where there aren't any greenhouses(that I know of).

Nancy.

Oakleyok- That you so much for the post! I did not know they nested in the ground, but I'll watch out for that...especially at my mom's house. Usually, the ones around here build nests under the eaves, especially in sunny spots. We spray any that we see, but they're everywhere this time of year! Yellow jackets are not fun, especially when you're allergic (like my mom is now) but they do serve some good purposes. I did a lot of research after my mom's reaction.

They're very helpful in the garden, especially in the early summer. Just like Annette said, they help get rid of pests in the garden and eat protein and make food for the larvae. The larvae (sp?) in turn, give off a sweet substance that the worker yellow jackets consume.

Later in the summer, the worker yellow jackets are no longer needed to feed the larvae, who quit giving off the sweet substance. This is when the yellow jackets change from eating protein (bugs) to anything sweet. This is why they are attracted to grapes, strawberries and other soft fruits...as well as garbage, especially pop and other sweet stuff.

They also get kicked out of the nest and are irritable because they're hungry and have no place to sleep! LOL I guess I'd be irritable, too, but that's no reason to sting someone.

Anyway, I'll never be able to spray them all, so I'm moving the grapes and strawberries out of my mom's yard and into my garden. We're also going to add a lot of plants that attract bumblebees, like catmint, lavender, butterfly bushes and coneflowers. I have a bunch of bumblebees in my garden, but not nearly as many yellow jackets as my mom has in her yard. I think Nancy is right and the other bees keep the yellow jackets a bit more under control...for whatever reason.

I'm also going to plant a lot more spearmint and sunflowers at my mom's house next year. Last year, the yellow jackets at my house slept on the sunflowers and spearmint in the evening, instead of trying to get in the cracks of the house, so they were much further from the doors.

A shallow birdbath or a few dishes of water (with rocks in the bottom) also help keep them happy and away from the house. My mom has a drip on one of her faucets and the yellow jackets just swarm around it in the afternoon, since they're thirsty and are attracted to the water. I figure we'll fix the drip and give them water on the edges of the garden, away from the paths and the house.

Sorry to go on so long (I think I wrote a book LOL) but I know there's no way to get rid of all the yellow jackets at my mom's house. There are too many metal shops and garages in her area and not enough garden space. At least this way, I hope we can keep the yellow jackets happy and calm...away from my mom. Worth a try! :)

We have the nasty things every summer hovering all over our back yard. Sometimes we find/destroy their nests, sometimes we aren't able to find them. We can't even allow the grandchildren to play out there during July-Sept. They are mean and aggressive and hurt like heck if they sting you. In our yard the nests are always underground. I don't know why they insist on making their home in our yard every year. We do keep water in our bird baths all the time, so maybe that's the attraction. I know everything in creation has a purpose, but I'm thinking we could do without yellow jackets AND mosquitoes just fine!

Lavender, apparently the more you are stung by a yellow jacket, it gets worse each time. My dh would get stung, no big deal, then the next year he'd get a worse reaction, then the following year he'd get a HUGE whelp where he got stung.

Does your mom have an Epi Pen in case she gets stung again and Benadryl won't help? I got stung for the first time this spring and ran into the house and immediately took 2 Benadryl. That SOB got me on the ear! lol

Annette, do yellow jackets and other wasps kill butterflies? Maybe that's why our butterfly population suddenly went down after June? We had TONS of butterflies, now we hardly see any, but we now have a ton of wasps and bumble bees. And a hornet or two. Ick.

I think there is something to be said about the competition...

We had yellow jackets something fierce at the old house, like amityville horror story or something.

A couple carpenter bees took up residence on our small stoop/porch thing in the back. The yellow jackets didn't seem to care for them, so we let the carpenter bees live out their existence for the summer ,even though they made wood shavings and I'm sure it wasn't good for the wood. It beats the yellow jackets.

I hate the yellow jackets because they are very quick and speedy, and get angry, and seem to not care for us, therefore I hate them and kill as many as possible.

Hmmmm, I thought I'd answered your question oakleyok, must not have hit the submit button. Yellow jackets and other wasps eat caterpillars and other insects as well as feed them chewed up to their larvae. So if the caterpillar population gets eaten, no butterflies.
The paper wasps and hornets have been multiplying in great numbers around here the last couple of years so I'm thinking it's because of them we don't have yellow swallowtails flitting around anymore :(.

Annette

Oakleyok- My mom did get two epipens when she left the hospital. They told her to keep one in the bathroom and one in her purse, just in case.

Krycek- Yellow jackets can be nasty...that's for sure. My mom and I joked about how mellow they got, when they were hanging out on the butterfly bushes in August. It was almost like they were a little drunk. So, I planted a lot of butterfly bushes at my house the past few years. I'll probably plant some more at hers, too. If you can't beat them...get them tipsy! :)

Thanks Annette, I wasn't equating your first post about caterpillars, hence no butterflies. lol

I tell ya what's really bad and we can't figure it out. Maybe one of you can help.

So far after doing some research I'm thinking these may be the Queens looking for a place to winter.

Every Fall, the front and back porch (brick house, siding porch roof) is full of yellow jackets, just flying slowly all around. We can have a freeze one night and it be warm the next day and they're back.

I'm not talking about just a few yellowjackets swarming the porches, I'm talking about 20 or 30 at a time! Oh, they also swarm all around the eaves too.

It's been so bad I've had to put notes on the doors saying, "Don't let a wasp in the house."

Once it gets cold though, they're gone.

Queens are the only one's who live during the winter, and the others die off.

Do you think these are Queens looking for a place to hibernate? They don't do this anywhere else except out PORCHES!

One of the biggest threats to butterflies is wasps. There are predator wasps that will kill off every caterpillar on the butterfly weed. It is discouraging, and one reason some really dedicated (and sharp-eyed) people find the eggs the butterflies lay, raise the caterpillars that develop, and keep them safe from predators then release them after they come out of the "cacoon".

I have learned a lot on the butterfly forum, but they can't teach you to spot those little eggs...you just have to develop that. I had a beautiful monarch caterpillar on my butterfly weed, even though I never saw the egg. The caterpillar was eating away at the plant, but that is why I planted it.

kay

Oakleyok- The yellow jackets do the same thing all around our area. Everyone has problems with them swarming around. A friend of ours told us that it was because the workers get kicked out of the nest as cold weather approaches (or the larvae don't need them anymore) and the worker yellow jackets are trying to find a place to keep warm at night. Anything that radiates heat will draw them, especially block, brick, metal and they either swarm, rest on warm walls or head under the eaves.

That's one reason I started planting more plants to keep them away from the house. I have no idea why, but in our area, they seem to love certain plants and will sleep on them at night (there were dozens on each sunflower stem last year) and not be swarming our front and back doors.

I don't know if they act this way in other parts of the country, but I plan to have more sunflowers next year!

When someone said earlier that other bees seem to discourage yellow jackets, I think that's true, too. I planted a lot of salvias, lavender, catmint and coneflowers this year, as well as the butterfly bushes and I have LOTS of bumblebees. I've also noticed there are less yellow jackets, but the ones that are left, seem less aggressive...at least so far :)

Yellowjackets and wasps are two different things. Here, yellowjackets nest in the ground. We don't have ones in our area that nest in trees. I've not seen multiple holes though. My hubby kills them with gasoline. They are particularly nasty if you happen to mow over a nesting site.

I've seen very few yellowjackets this year, not sure why. Few wasps also. I seem to see more bumblebees. I suppose they are attracted to what I have planted.

tina

We have had this problem as well. Last summer was the first time I'd ever seen or heard of a nest in the ground. We had partially dug out a huge shrub (to start the "moving' process") and they moved into the hole in the ground. You couldn't even get the spray down there to kill them, we tried putting the hose down there to drown them, and that didn't work either. Took us all summer to get of them.

Then this summer, they made a nest in the side vegetable garden by the stone border underneath the ground. We found it while mowing the lawn and they were NASTY! 3 stings on the ankle in less than 30 seconds. Again, took quite a while to get rid. And they are mean and vindictive little things. You can't just swat them away, they seem to follow you around. I've been gardening less this summer because they make the days almost impossible to be outside in. I'm waiting for slightly cooler weather for them to go away and I can start catching up on garden chores!

I have less bumblebees - even though I grow coneflowers, sunflowers, lavenders - and tons more of these hornets/wasps. Not a good swap, in my opinion. I absolutely agree with whoever said that we could live just fine without either these wasps, or mosquitoes :) This summer (and last summer) have been so bad for both!

Just curious, and I have no evidence to base this on whatsoever, but has anybody read anything suggesting bumblebees and honey bees are less resistant to pesticides than yellow jackets and wasps?

With so many people spraying yellow jackets and their nests, they still come back stronger than ever. Many people also use pesticides and herbicides in their gardens, so I'm wondering if using these (or maybe your neighbor using them) could this be impacting the honey bees and bumblebees?

I know this is a sensitive subject for some people, so I'm not making any accusations...just wondering if anyone has read anything about this possibility?