{"id":7755,"date":"2015-08-06T12:00:57","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T16:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=7755"},"modified":"2015-07-21T13:13:24","modified_gmt":"2015-07-21T17:13:24","slug":"beware-yellow-jackets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2015\/08\/06\/beware-yellow-jackets\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware! Yellow Jackets"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Paper<\/a>

Paper wasp (photo by Dr. Frank Hale, University of Tennessee Entomologist<\/p><\/div>\n

Most humans fear and hate yellow jackets. They are actually wasps and important\u00a0predators of\u00a0several harmful insects. They\u2019re easily identified by their distinctive markings along their abdomen. They tend to dart\u00a0about rapidly, in a side-to-side flight pattern. Female yellow jackets are the ones capable of stinging.<\/p>\n

Wasps (Vespula spp<\/i>.) are not bees; they\u2019re brightly colored \u201ccousins\u201d of ground bees.\u00a0In late summer, while\u00a0most ground nesting bees are storing up food for\u00a0the winter, wasps begin to emerge. They\u00a0had constructed\u00a0their nests in cool spots such as old rodent burrows, ground holes, under roof eaves, and in mortar cracks between bricks of buildings.<\/p>\n

Yellow jackets are social insects. They\u00a0are not pollinators, but do prey on other pollinating insects and nectar. They scavenge on\u00a0animal wastes and\u00a0foods high in protein or sugar. Wasps are highly aggressive and are\u00a0easily provoked by humans.\u00a0Favorite places to forage include waste receptacles, soda cans, and picnic foods which they carry back to their nest.<\/p>\n

The aggressive behavior of yellow jackets, coupled with their\u00a0tendency to attack as a group, makes them\u00a0formidable pests to deal with. When outdoors follow these few wasp avoiding tips. Keep all liquids covered. Don\u2019t swat or crush yellow jackets as this may\u00a0incite other yellow jackets to attack. If you get too near\u00a0a nest, backoff slowly. Do not wear bright colored clothes or heavy perfumes.<\/p>\n

Call a professional exterminator who has the knowledge, safety clothing, and proper pesticides to find and destroy nests close by your home or patio. Otherwise, leave these mostly beneficial insects alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Most humans fear and hate yellow jackets. They are actually wasps and important\u00a0predators of\u00a0several harmful insects. They\u2019re easily identified by their distinctive markings along their abdomen. They tend to dart\u00a0about rapidly, in a side-to-side flight pattern. Female yellow jackets are the ones capable of stinging. Wasps (Vespula spp.) are not bees; they\u2019re brightly colored […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1214,5,816,1030,606,828,630,1230,1229],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7755"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7856,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7755\/revisions\/7856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}