The yellowjackets are out in full force in the warm, autumn sun. Lately, the moment I step out of my truck in the parking lot, one is there to greet me. They must be nearsighted because they always want to hover back and forth close to my face to see who I am. I’m not sure what this close encounter is all about, maybe they think an insect is stuck in my teeth from the drive out there. They usually investigate the front of my truck and remove insects from there. The other day when I was taking a photo, one landed in between my fingers and begin chewing on a small flake of dried skin. That said, yellowjackets only tend to be aggressive towards people if you get near their nest. They are part of a healthy ecosystem to keep the balance of nature. The adults feed on nectar, so presumably, they will be pollinators of flowers. The larvae feed on pre-chewed insects like the grasshopper in the photo. This helps to keep the insect populations in check.
In the late summer, males will mate with new queens. As autumn progresses towards winter and the cold weather sets in, all the yellowjackets die except for the mated females. These will overwinter in the soil or litter of vegetative matter on the ground like leaves.
Resource
Milne, Lorus Johnson, and Margery Milne. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders. Knopf : distributed by Random House, 1980.
