Food Shortages Make Yellowjackets Cranky - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), June, 2000

ENTOMOLOGY

Yellowjackets may be a pesky problem at many outdoor gatherings during the summer, but, as the season draws to a close, these stinging insects likely will become even more unruly and aggressive. As people try to enjoy the last warmth and sun of summer and early fall, yellowjackets can make a barbecue or outdoor business lunch unbearable, according to the experts at the Lanacane Itch Information Center, White Plains, N.Y.

"As summer ends, yellowjackets experience a shortage in food," explains Dewey M. Caron, professor of entomology, University of Delaware, Dover, and scientific advisor to the new Lanacane Sting Forecast (www.lanacane.com), which gives daily hot spots of bee/wasp activity throughout the warm-weather season. "The things they normally feed on, such as caterpillars and maggots, are dwindling in population, so they turn to an easier and more immediate source of nutrition and carbohydrates--your picnic lunch."

While yellowjackets, which are part of the wasp family, aren't actually looking to go after or feed on humans, they are extremely defensive of their territory. "Yellowjackets actually have hives quite rich in protein, making them supreme targets for animals and other predators. Due to the fact that their homes are often hunted, yellowjackets have developed extreme aggressive and defensive tendencies." Once an insect focuses on eating a person's ham sandwich, this aggression will kick in as it defends what it perceives as its food from the human trying to eat it--which can result in a painful sting or a swarm of yellowjackets that sends that individual running in the other direction.