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Uninvited Garden Party Guests

© Mary Henry

The Minnesota State Fair has begun. That means that summer has reached its peak here. In the garden our midsummer bounty of flowers is beginning to look a bit over-ripe but the buds on the chrysanthemums are getting fat. This is usually the time when we schedule our outdoor parties. Gatherings in the garden would be an echo of our residence in the Garden of Eden if it were not for that little beastie that we call the yellowjacket (Vespula species). They are great garden friends who destroy many times their individual weight in other insects each summer, but they can also be a great menace at a picnic. Since their stinger has no barb, it can (and will be) used over and over in their defense. They also bite. Happily, they won't be provoked to do either if we are careful. Never swat one if there is the slightest chance that you might miss! It is best to gently brush or shoo them away. Better yet, use a lure-baited trap to keep them occupied and out of your food.

The life story of the yellowjacket could be called "How to Make Something From Almost Nothing" or "Single Mom Makes Good". Like annual flowers, the yellowjackets all die with the fall frosts. All, that is, except the fertilized young females. They winter over in debris on the ground or under the bark of dead trees. In spring, each will come out of hibernation and set up housekeeping alone. Usually this will be in an abandoned rodent hole in the ground, but could even be under the siding of a building or in a hollow stump. The industrious single Mom will build a paper nest in the hole (after all she is a member of the family that includes paper wasps and hornets) and populate it with the eggs fertilized before frost killed the rest of the clan. Until these eggs mature into the new generation of female workers, she is the sole caretaker. She must defend and feed the brood alone. The hungry young are voracious eaters of pre-chewed insects, primarily caterpillars. Mom, herself, is a nectar sipper but will happily share your sugary pop or any other sugar source around.

When the first batch are grown, Mom retires to egg-laying duties only and the daughters take over the work of rearing the rest of their siblings which can reach numbers as few as 15 or, in a good year, as many as 15,000.

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