Yellow Jackets
Much like a honeybee, a yellow jacket can sting except she can sting multiple times unlike a honeybee. Yellow jackets are actually wasps and while they are beneficial predators to flies, they become aggressive in the late summer and autumn as they seek food – many times, your sugary beverage, fruit, or even garbage.
Hairless, with yellow and black stripes, yellow jackets often get mistaken for honeybees by naive bystanders. I know I’m not alone when I tell you that I’ve been called countless times to save bees in someone’s foundation or eave. I can almost guarantee that if it’s late in the summer, you’ve been invaded by yellow jackets.
Luring yellow jackets away from beehives, or your picnic spot, can be done by mixing a gross concoction of rotting meat, sugar water, and/or stale beer. Unlike honeybees, these pests are carnivorous. Adding meat to your bait will keep the good bees out of the trap.
Wasps & Hornets
There are several species. These are common in Michigan.
Bald-faced hornets are large, black with a white mark on their head. They are the species that builds the basketball sized paper nests in trees. Bald-faced hornets are extremely aggressive.
Mud Dauber are long, slender wasps about 1″ in length. As their name indicates, they make their nests from mud. They do not act aggressive unless threatened.
Cicada Killer Wasps are about 1.5″ in length, black with yellow markings and amber wings. They tunnel underground. Their venom paralyzes cicadas.
Paper Wasps are the wasps that form those paper combs on your soffit, siding, inside your shed, beneath your deck stairs, and anywhere else they like. Hornets & yellow jackets are a subfamily. They are territorial and will sting multiple times if threatened. Ask me how I know.
European Hornet is the largest eusocial wasp native to Europe & found in North America. 1 – 1.3″ long with a red & yellow head and a brown & red body, they are commonly mistaken for the Asian giant hornet. At this time, the Asian giant hornet is not found in Michigan.
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