Yellow Jackets anyone?

[EdJunior]

On the return leg of my morning walk with my dog, I noticed a big hole in the ground at the top of my drainage ditch. Great...got me a critter home of some kind. I went back out later to get some pictures and have a closer look, and I discovered it's a yellow jacket nest. Or was? Or now is? The first thing I noticed is a bunch of the cells from a nest just scattered all around the hole. There are definitely yellow jackets there. So my question is, did some kind of other critter come and decide he likes that hole and is clearing the nest out? Or are the yellow jackets clearing out the old nest and building a new one? Very strange.

[flyflotrtim]

Do you have armadillos around?

[Reverse_snowbird]

According to 'the Google', skunks and racoons are their main predators. That looks like something dug out the nest. Supposedly, the males die before winter and leave the queen who lays eggs in the spring.

We've been in some state parks where they are so bad that they've hung yellow jacket traps everywhere.

[GravelRider]

[Flybob]

Looks like a predator found the nest and enjoyed the larvae. You will be amazed at how large a cavern there is under that hole. It can be the size of a basketball.

[PhilFromMaine]

Originally Posted by Flybob

Looks like a predator found the nest and enjoyed the larvae. You will be amazed at how large a cavern there is under that hole. It can be the size of a basketball.

Having been a land surveyor, I have seen and stepped on hundreds of Yellow Jacket nests. Their holes are always no bigger than a quarter coin at best. underground nests are even smaller. This site is definitely the result of a small predator.

[Mr. Dan]

No yellow jackets nest in the ground around here. They ALL live under the valve cover/lid on my 500 gallon above ground propane tank!

[Aussieguy]

got a wasp nest in my boat trailer's jockey wheel


manual cranking too
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK

[TitanMike]

No Yellow Jackets here----------after I used this:




When I painted the house it took two cans of this to "prep", especially under the eaves.

[rowdy boys 3]

Yep, i keep a can of it behind my drivers seat, just in case, the campground electrical junction box hasnt been used in a while, LOL...

[desuhu]

Thats for sure. Same with our propane tank.

[mnoland30]

I always called yellow jackets "meat bees" because they would try to eat the meat on my plate during picnics. I thought yellow jackets were like hornets, but they are different. I maintain a trail along our irrigation ditch, and run into yellow jackets too often. The racoons take care of them in the fall, once it is cold enough to kill them. They will dig out the nest comb and scatter it. The queen survives the winter by burrowing deep into the ground.

During the summer, if you put a glass bowl over their hole, they won't be able to get out (unless there is more than one hole). They see the light, so they keep trying to get out. I wear insulated coveralls and a head net while placing the bowl. I tried a trap, and it did get a few, but was fairly ineffective.

Yellow jackets pollinate flowers in the spring, but when food gets scarce, they attack honey bee colonies.

[Retired JSO]

Skunks are the number 1 diggers of underground yellow jacket hives. Here at our home this week.