YELLOW JACKET PEST CONTROL FOR BELLINGHAM, WA

Yellow jackets and Paper wasp are social insects that have a division of labor between workers and sexually developed Queens both females and males. Newly fertilized queens are the only members of the colony that overwinter. They will overwinter in a place where they can stay warm and survive (under bark of tree, wood piles, stumps & attics of homes. The queens will emerge during the first warm days of spring which could be March and April. When queens emerge in the spring, they select a nest site, and build a small paper nest in which the lay their eggs. When the eggs hatch, the queen will feed the larvae for up to three weeks. Larvae then pupate, to emerge as small infertile females called workers. Once the first five or more workers appear, they begin rearing and feeding the brood. The queen is rarely seen again. The colony rapidly increases in size and may reach several hundred workers by June. Colonies reach maximum size in August and September. During peak population period, the colony produces reproductive cells that produce new queen sand males which eventually leave the nest for mating flights. The males soon die, and the inseminated queen seeks a sheltered location to overwinter. Abandoned nests decompose and disintegrate during winter months, They are not used again. Come spring, the whole cycle begins again.