Invertebrates
Yellow Jacket
Vespula · also called yellow jackets, yellowjacket
A yellow jacket lands directly on an open soda can at a summer picnic, entirely unbothered by the crowd nearby, a scavenging boldness that sets it apart from most of its wasp and bee relatives alike.
Overview
The yellow jacket, genus Vespula, is a widespread social wasp found in grassland and forest habitat across much of North America, Europe, and Asia. Its smooth hairless body, repeatable sting, and unusual willingness to scavenge human food make it one of the more frequently encountered and occasionally troublesome stinging insects most people will meet.
A wasp that crashes the picnic
While most wasps stay focused on hunting insects, the yellow jacket happily switches to human leftovers, sugary drinks, and fallen fruit, a scavenging habit that explains why it shows up so reliably wherever people are eating outdoors.
Status
Least Concern — widespread and abundant across suitable grassland and forest habitat throughout its range.
Yellow Jacket: common questions
How can you tell a yellow jacket apart from a bee?
A yellow jacket has a smooth, largely hairless body with bold black-and-yellow banding, unlike the fuzzy, pollen-collecting hairs typical of bees, and it also behaves quite differently, scavenging human food at picnics far more readily than most bees ever would.
Why do yellow jackets show up at picnics and outdoor barbecues?
A yellow jacket readily scavenges sugary drinks, meat, and other human food, a behaviour far less common among most other wasp species, which makes it one of the more frequently encountered and unwelcome guests at outdoor gatherings during late summer.
Can a yellow jacket sting more than once?
Yes, unlike a honeybee, a yellow jacket has a smooth stinger with no barb, allowing it to sting a target multiple times in a row without the stinger becoming lodged and without any injury to the wasp itself.
What happens to a yellow jacket colony in winter?
Almost the entire colony, which can number several thousand workers by late summer, dies off with the arrival of cold weather, and only newly mated queens survive through winter in sheltered spots to found new colonies the following spring.