Yellow Jackets (species in the genera Vespula and Dolichovespula) are social wasps known for their aggressive defense of their homes. Often confused with bees due to their bright yellow and black banding, Yellow Jackets definitively construct paper nests. This material, created from natural fibers, forms the entire structure of their colonies.
The Truth About Paper Nests
Yellow Jackets produce a paper-like material, but it is not commercially manufactured paper. The wasps scrape and chew weathered wood, bark, or other cellulose sources. They then mix these fine wood fibers with their saliva, creating a pulp similar to papier-mâché.
This resulting paste is spread in thin layers, which dry into a light, durable, and protective paper shell. The color of the nest often appears grayish or beige, directly reflecting the sources of the wood fiber used. Internally, the colony is organized into multiple horizontal tiers of hexagonal brood cells, which resemble honeycomb but are made of paper instead of wax.
These tiers are stacked and entirely enclosed within a multi-layered paper envelope, giving the nest a characteristic, protected structure. This outer covering acts as insulation, helping to maintain a stable temperature and humidity for the developing young inside. The queen and workers continuously expand this enclosure as the colony grows throughout the season.
Common Nesting Locations
Yellow Jackets are highly adaptable, selecting a variety of protected sites to build their paper nests. The two primary categories of nests are subterranean and aerial. Subterranean nests are often started in existing cavities, such as abandoned rodent burrows or natural voids under tree roots and stumps.
The wasps enlarge these underground spaces as the colony expands, with the nest entrance appearing as a single, small opening in the soil. Aerial or structural nests are built in protected, enclosed spaces above ground. Common locations include hollow walls, attics, crawlspaces, and beneath porch decks or eaves.
These hidden locations contribute significantly to the danger of Yellow Jacket nests because they are often discovered only when accidentally disturbed. The location selection prioritizes shelter from weather and security from predators. The species Vespula germanica is particularly known for nesting in structural voids.
How Yellow Jacket Nests Differ from Others
The fully enclosed, paper-covered nest is the main feature distinguishing Yellow Jackets from other social wasps. When exposed, these nests are typically spherical or football-shaped, covered in a brittle, gray-to-beige paper shell, and possess only a small entrance hole.
In contrast, nests built by Paper Wasps (Polistes species) are easily identified by their open, umbrella-like structure. These nests consist of a single, exposed comb of hexagonal cells attached to a surface by a central stalk, with no outer paper envelope. Paper wasp colonies are also much smaller, rarely exceeding a few dozen individuals.
Hornets, such as the Bald-Faced Hornet (Dolichovespula maculata), also build enclosed paper nests, but they are generally much larger and often hang freely from trees or high structures. Hornet nests are typically coarse, darker gray or brown, and can reach the size of a basketball or larger. Yellow Jacket nests, even when aerial, are usually concealed within a void rather than hanging in the open.
The Annual Cycle of Colony Growth
The life of a Yellow Jacket colony is annual, a cycle that begins anew each spring with a single fertilized queen. She emerges from her overwintering site, finds a suitable location, and begins to construct a small paper nest and lay her first eggs. This founding queen performs all the foraging, nest building, and larval care until the first generation of sterile female workers matures.
Once the workers take over, the colony enters a period of rapid expansion throughout the summer, with the queen focusing solely on reproduction. By late summer and early fall, the worker population can peak, often reaching thousands of individuals, and the nest size increases dramatically. At this time, the colony switches to producing reproductive individuals: new queens and males.
After mating, the new, fertilized queens leave the nest to find a protected place to hibernate through the winter. The remaining members of the colony—the old queen, the workers, and the males—die off with the onset of cold weather or the first hard frost. Because only the new queens survive, the paper nest is abandoned and is never reused the following year.