{"id":1034,"date":"2014-07-10T15:17:47","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T22:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/?p=1034"},"modified":"2014-07-10T15:28:24","modified_gmt":"2014-07-10T22:28:24","slug":"yellowjackets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/2014\/07\/10\/yellowjackets\/","title":{"rendered":"Yellowjackets"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Chal Landgren, OSU Extension Christmas Tree Specialist<\/em><\/p>\n

Anyway it is spelled- Yellowjacket, Yellow Jacket or Yellow-Jacket, these insects are feared and hated not only by picnickers, but by many working in the woods, and in Christmas trees. \u00a0For Christmas tree growers they can inflict physical and economic pain, since they are unwanted hitchhikers in many shipping destinations.<\/p>\n

First some biology- These are not honeybees. Rather, two predatory insects in the genus Vespula, whose common names are the Western Yellowjacket and German Yellowjacket. <\/i>The Western<\/p>\n

\n \"Comparison<\/a>\n
Comparison of queens. Photo courtesy ODA<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

Yellowjacket (V. pensylvanica<\/i>) is a common native.\u00a0 Yes, they are predators, but also scavengers, which makes them a pest at summer BBQs and picnics.\u00a0 The German yellowjacket (V. germanica<\/i>) \u00a0is an uncommon non-native species (not wanted in Mexico). \u00a0Both these insects feed on other insects as well as nectar, honeydew and fruit.<\/p>\n

Queens will overwinter in protected locations above or below ground and emerge in May. After the queen emerges she will begin her colony which eventually can include hundreds to thousands of workers. Fertilized queens will emerge again in October or November. Males (stingless) begin to emerge in large numbers in late July.<\/p>\n

Control strategies are very time sensitive. Some growers have observed fewer nests being formed if they can get out their lure traps before the females start forming colonies (May).\u00a0 If you can trap a queen you can begin to control the populations. Once the females begin colonies they do not fly and the lure traps catch only workers or males. \u00a0Workers can fly \u00bc mile or so from the nest in search of food. That \u201cfood\u201d can be honeydew from aphid feeding on Christmas Trees, if present.<\/p>\n

Where they conflict with work or recreation, nests can be targeted with insecticides. The PNW Insect Management Handbook reminds us wasp nests should be treated in evening when wasps are less active with a pesticide formulated specifically for wasp nests (rather than gasoline), and also that some professionals in the PNW collect wasps to be used in the manufacture of allergy injections. Find more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are registered baiting options that can be useful around homes, campgrounds and zoos. The insecticide Onslaug<\/i>h<\/i>t<\/i> is a microencapsulated version of esfenvalerate (a pyrethroid) is approved for use in bait stations. A company out of Bend, Alpine Pest Management, makes the bait stations.<\/p>\n

\"yellow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Chal Landgren, OSU Extension Christmas Tree Specialist Anyway it is spelled- Yellowjacket, Yellow Jacket or Yellow-Jacket, these insects are feared and hated not only by picnickers, but by many working in the woods, and in Christmas trees. \u00a0For Christmas tree growers they can inflict physical and economic pain, since they are unwanted hitchhikers in… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1151,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[55514,55535,2834],"class_list":["post-1034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas-trees","tag-insects","tag-ipm"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1034"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1043,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions\/1043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}