Yellowjacket Identification, Facts, and Control Measures | Gardener's Path

Vespula pennsylvanica / maculiforna / germanica / vulgaris / squamosa and Dolichovespula

The dog days of summer…fresh water melon, ice cream, picnics, barbecue, festivals…and yes, yellowjackets.

Yellowjackets are exceptionally troublesome wasps. They can become highly aggressive, especially when the available food is getting low later in the season when their colonies are getting larger.

While it can be annoying when wasps hover around soda cans at picnics and barbecues, these insects can be downright dangerous: they are responsible for most of the stinging deaths in the US.

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These wasps can keep stinging (unlike bees that die after one sting) plus large numbers of them can gang up on people.

Yellowjackets do have their uses – they prey on a large number of insects – including many that are damaging to agriculture.

However, their tendency to bite and sting generally makes them unwelcome residents of a yard or, perish the thought, a house!

In this article, we will discuss the different species and approaches you can take to minimize the harm they could cause you.

There are two genera of yellowjackets – Vespula and Dolichovespula – both in the family Vespidae, a huge family that primarily includes social wasps that live in colonies.

And within those genera, there are multiple species, some of the most common (to North America and Europe) being:

The western yellowjacket, Vespula pennsylvanica, is the most common type in the western US. It nests in the ground, and is sometimes referred to as the “meat bee.”

The eastern yellowjacket, Vespula