Where are the yellowjackets?

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Most years in this part of the country, this would be prime yellowjacket season, with these aggressive little social wasps everywhere.
This year, I've seen only a couple of them.
Did the last mild winter harm them in some way or is something else going on?
I'm happy enough to be free of these little guys that will sting you with no reason, but I wonder what's become of them.
Does anyone have any idea?
 
Funny you should ask. My ankle and foot are both swollen right now due to a couple yellow jackets getting inside my shoe while I was mowing yesterday.
 
I found them:
Garden shed
Pump shed
Wood shed
Mower shed
Palm trees
Ivy on fence
Bay house
 
One Friend of mine has had a nightmare this year nests in his yard(ground) house, eaves, under deck, tree etc
 
I have been having the most fun in quite a while killing nests of Yellow jackets [almost as good as getting Gophers].
 
Bees and bugs are in big decline globally. It isn't a good thing, they are very important to plants and the food chain. Pesticides are hypothesized to be the reason.
 
Originally Posted By: wallyuwl
Bees and bugs are in big decline globally. It isn't a good thing, they are very important to plants and the food chain. Pesticides are hypothesized to be the reason.


Wasps arent bees. They are devils.
 
An acquaintance of my wife's was recently killed by a yellow jacket attack. He was doing something outside, disturbed a nest and got at least 20 stings. He was not allergic to bee stings, but he was in his 70's.
 
They're very smart. When I was a kid, I had the water hose out and I was squirting a pine tree that had a nest in it. All of a sudden, a swarm of yellow jackets came flying out of the tree and headed straight for me. They flew down through the collar of my T-shirt and stung me in the chest 6 times.
 
No shortage around here.

Every year it seems I manage to get stung multiple times coming across a ground nest. Few years back I was working in my garden, and got stung 18 times. Little buggers had made a ground nest right at the edge of the garden, and my company was not welcome.
 
I have developed an allergy to the sting. Pass out, heart beat anomaly. Last week had an exterminator for a nest in the ground for which I could not find the hole. $160. Cheaper than an ambulance ride to the emergency room.
 
Many years ago when I was putting up cedar siding on a new house, I went up a ladder to straighten and staple the 15# felt that had come loose at the top. What I didn't see was a yellow jacket nest they had made in the fold. I was off that ladder and running like mad but I still received several stings. Nasty buggers they are.
 
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Our version is the European Wasp...nasty critters.

Ours build nests in cavities, not in the ground...
 
they are all here.
have killed 2 underground nests in mine and a neighbors yard.
constantly zapping them with our modded hf racquets got old.
a good squirt of dawn down the hole followed by a garden hose does them in in a few minutes without trashing the lawn like gasoline.
do it after dark.
then watch a skunk dig it up for an all he can eat larvae buffet.
 
Are those the ones that nest in the ground and you run over their hole with a mower they get riled? Happened to me as a teenager. Even in a full-on escape sprint, they tore me up !!
 
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Interesting to see this post, my wife and I were just discussing how wasp activity was down dramatically for us at home this summer and I don't think I've seen a single yellowjacket.
Obviously not a nationwide phenomenon based on most of the replies here...

I guess I got lucky and am not very sensitive to wasp stings...it's a bigger deal for me to get a mosquito or blackfly bite as far as swelling goes (not for the initial pain). Looks like my daughter got this trait from me, she was swarmed by yellowjackets at our mailbox when she was 3 or 4 and was fine 15 minutes later despite having 5 or 6 stings (my wife is very sensitive to them). I've would imagine that 20 or more stings would get to me, too, though.
 
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