Wow, and here I thought we had the worst “yellowjacket story” of anyone in the country. Sheesh…
They are pretty bad here though. For the first few summers, mowing the yard was hazardous duty. Had a few stings but luckily spotted and took care of most in-ground nests sting-free. I think one year we found 7 nests, in the (~1/2 ac) of front and back yard.
So I set about researching how to deal with them, their lifecycle, etc… Early on we tried a few things, with mixed results. For the past few years we’ve settled on a simple hunt-and-destroy methodology.
Some number of workers go off in the fall and find a place to hibernate over the winter. They emerge in the spring as a queen and set out building a new colony. The queen is very active during this time, feeding and nest building. They are perhaps 1.5X the size of a worker and once you get attuned to them, make a fairly distinct sound while flying.
Every few days we walk around the yard and orchard area with a pump-up hand sprayer, filled with water and a bit of dish soap. When we locate one flying a few inches off the ground, in a zig-zag pattern, hunting for bugs. We simply blast it with a stream and walk over and step on it.
The first year we killed half a dozen or so this way. Hadn’t really refined the “hunt” yet at that point. The next year I believe it was 17. Last year, from spring to early summer, we killed 86. Really had it dialed in at that point… This year it was 43, which I hope was a decrease because of our efforts last year.
Each queen can lay between 5 and 10 thousand eggs in a season. Therefore a dead queen, before she lays any or many eggs, is the best kind in my book! We’ve seen very few workers this year, one or two around some hummingbird feeders, not tons of them like we’ve seen in the past.
This year we took the time to snap a photo of every one killed. Kind of made a game of it https://photos.app.goo.gl/QiXefnREveVayd3p9
Next spring, we’ll be on patrol again…