Late summer is the season when yellow jackets can be a problem for beekeepers. This is the same season that honey-robbing honey bees appear, and the miscreants can work together to produce a synergistic mess.
Yellow jackets are eusocial predatory wasps. An overwintered yellow jacket queen begins a new colony in the spring by laying a few eggs in a small nest, usually underground. Her progeny enlarges the nest, providing the queen more room to lay eggs. The daughter wasps care for the young, clean the nest, hunt, feed the young, and defend the colony. Both the nest and the colony continue to increase in size during the spring and summer months.
But just when the wasp colony is at its largest, the summer food supply begins to ebb. Less rainfall and higher temperatures mean foliage starts to dry and the insects that fed on the foliage are gone. You first notice the yellow jackets when they want to share your hamburger or sip your beer. They’ll go for soda pop, roast pig, or even corn-on-the-cob. These insects, previously in the background, suddenly come out of the woodwork. They are everywhere and they are mean.
Then, as the shorter and cooler days of autumn approach, even the alternative food sources dry up. But, although the picnic basket has disappeared, there is still fresh meat to be had . . . honey bees.
A well-populated colony of honey bees can successfully defend itself against a yellow jacket attack, but a small or weak colony can easily be overpowered by these aggressive and powerful wasps. Once in the door they will kill the bees. They will eat larvae, eggs, pupae, honey—whatever they can find. And they won’t give up until the hive is empty.
Several years ago a friend called to say that she saw some yellow jackets around one of my hives. I went over and watched in morbid fascination as three out of every four insects that went in or out of the hive was a yellow jacket. By the time I opened it, nothing was left. Even the comb was torn apart.
If a hive is weak, especially during a nectar dearth, other honey bees will often rob it of its honey stores. The fighting that ensues results in dead bees and open cells of honey—both of which can be detected by scavenging yellow jackets. If robbing gets well underway, yellow jackets are sure to follow.
So how do you prevent the carnage? In my experience, the best way to prevent an attack is to prevent robbing. As soon as nectar becomes scarce, close down the entrance to a size the colony can defend. A large and boisterous colony doesn’t need any restriction, but a small or weak colony may need its entrance reduced to one bee length. Make sure there are no alternate entrances where robbers or wasps can enter.
Also helpful are the plastic traps that contain a pheromone lure for yellow jackets. Hung in a tree or other structure, they attract the yellow jackets through a one-way entrance. Once inside, the wasps can’t find their way out. If you use these, hang them on the perimeter of the apiary but not too near the hives. The idea is to attract the wasps away from the hive, not toward it.
My other favorite yellow jacket control is to sweep them up in a butterfly net in the early spring. The very first ones you see may be queens. If you can get these, you can save yourself a lot of trouble later.
Rusty
Yellow jacket eating a honey bee
I notice wasps in the spring are big and fat. Are those the queens? I squished a few of them hanging around an outdoor feeder I had set up earlier in the summer.
I didn’t know the wasps traps were safe for honey bees. I figured they’d trap the bees as well as the wasps.
Phillip,
Queens are the only wasps that overwinter in cold climates. So, yes, those fat early ones are most likely queens. They need to do everything by themselves in the early spring until the first batch of brood is raised, so that is why you see them out and about.
Wasp traps that use a pheromone lure will not attract honey bees. I usually have several of them hanging in the bee yard and I have never caught a honey bee.
A great article Rusty. I didn’t know much about them at all. Thank you. I just squish them when I get a chance. The thing is, I bought a butterfly net to catch and kill those white butterflies that lay their eggs on my cabbages, then hatch and eat holes thru everything!
I’ll be out there next spring scooping up the wasp queens! I’ve been practicing on wasps when things get slow, so I’m getting pretty good at snatching them out of the air, if I do say so myself.
Doug,
Sounds like the Cabbage White butterfly. And you are right, the larval stage eats holes through everything.
You are also right about the butterfly net–it takes some practice, but you can get good at it. I’ve gotten a lot of practice on yellow jackets and bald-faced hornets. Then I squish them.
Cabbage white butterfly can be controlled with cooking flour; my mom has been doing it for years. They eat it and can’t defecate any more larvae.
I noticed more wasps around our hives for the past week. I’m sure they can smell the honey. It’s made the bees more defensive. I got stung on the back of the neck today just standing around minding my own business. I need a bigger back yard. I’m learning all the pros and cons of urban beekeeping these days.
I’ve seen a large increase in the number of yellowjackets in the last two weeks. Before that I had mostly hornets but yellowjackets have taken over. I was fixing a fence this weekend and got stung by a defensive honey bee–and I have a big yard.
It’s the occasional defensive behaviour of honey bees that makes me question the wisdom of urban beekeeping.
I agree with you, but it’s a very unpopular position to take. I’m afraid some folks will find out the hard way.
Is there anything you can do to stop the yellow jackets once you see them going into the honey bee hive or is it a lost cause??
I have reduced the entrance and closed off all other openings. We have killed the one big yellow jacket nest that we know of and I keep killing any yellow jackets I can smoosh around the hive. My hive is queenless right now–could the yellow jackets have killed her? I noticed about a month ago a large pile of dead bees outside the hive and yellow jackets around then.
I just took the last honey super off early this week and there were a lot of bees but no eggs or queen so I would say they are weakened at this point. There were a few of those nasty yellowjackets on the combs too.
I really don’t want to lose them.
Thanks
Dawn,
It sounds pretty bad. I have seen exactly what you are talking about. Once the bees more or less give up, the yellowjackets go in and take over the hive. They will attack and kill bees. They will also eat honey, brood, and eggs.
It is very possible they killed the queen. I don’t think they will go after a queen specifically, but she is an easy mark. The dead bees may have been evicted drones or they may have accumulated from a robbing attempt–it’s hard to tell. But the smell of the dead bees and/or the smell of honey probably attracted the yellowjackets to the hive.
Are you sure you are queenless? Often there is not much brood this time of year so it can be hard to tell if a queen is present or not. But if you are queenless you will have to get a mated queen quickly in order to overwinter. Your colony will not be able to raise a queen if there are no eggs and, in any case, the drones are mostly gone by now so a virgin queen would be unable to mate.
I think the best you can do is get a queen and keep the hive reduced to a very small entrance. Make sure they have pollen. If you do get a new queen the colony will need both pollen and honey in order to raise brood. Do you have more than one hive? If so, you might be better off by combining this hive with another.
Well . . . this is my only hive but–we spent a lot of time killing yellow jackets today and I did reduce the entrance and added a 1/2 gal boardman feeder with Honey-B-Healthy in the syrup. When I checked again several hours later, there was only one yj to kill (which we did) and the honey bees had cleaned out the feeder!! I had more syrup and pulled the feeder out to refill and there were honey bees all over it!
They were also back to the feisty little creatures that I usually have. They are lined up in the very small (about 1″) entrance they have and seem to be guarding it!
I am so excited!! I watched for awhile and saw no more yj. We really worked hard to kill all of them.
There were 2 capped queen cells a couple of days ago. I know she will be practically a virgin queen but I figure to replace her next season. There is a wild hive close by so I am hoping she will be able to at least mate a few times. There was some capped brood present and larvae but I did not see any eggs. I also had the hive vented, because it has been so hot here in Ohio but I closed all that up also. I intend to continue to feed them as they do not have nearly enough honey for winter yet. I have a great supplier close by and can get pollen patties and about anything else I need. I really enjoy my bees and want to be a good manager for them.
I just am amazed at the difference in the general attitude of the girls by this evening! They really did seem like they had given up earlier but not now. I can’t wait to see what the morning reveals! Should be warmer and sunny here. We will be on yj patrol too.
BTW-I really like your site and really appreciate your answer.
Good work, Dawn. It sounds like your bees had a reprieve.
Are there any drones in your hive? That may give you an idea of whether or not the wild colony has any drones. Just be sure you have a fertile, egg-laying queen before winter sets in.
Just a small note . . . they are still feisty this morning and I even watched them fight off a yellow jacket that tried to get in the little entrance. They are literally sucking up syrup and seem to be out foraging in the asters which are just starting to bloom. (still lots of goldenrod)
Just makes my day to see them carrying on like normal!!!
I am learning to let the bees tell/show me what they need and do my best to provide the resource or make the situation manageable for them.
Amazing little creatures!!