Yellowjackets are common stinging insects, often encountered during outdoor activities. Many people wonder if these wasps hibernate to survive colder months. The answer is more intricate than a simple yes or no, as their winter survival strategy involves a specific member of the colony entering a state of dormancy, rather than the entire group.
The Yellowjacket’s Winter Survival Strategy
Most yellowjacket workers and males do not survive winter in regions experiencing freezing temperatures. As cold weather arrives, these individuals die off. However, the newly mated queen yellowjacket possesses an adaptation that allows her to persist through harsh conditions.
The queen enters a dormant state known as overwintering. Her metabolic rate significantly slows, conserving energy until spring. She seeks sheltered locations for this phase, such as hollow logs, tree stumps, leaf litter, soil cavities, attics, wall voids, sheds, or firewood piles. Some queens produce “antifreeze” proteins, aiding cold tolerance.
The Annual Yellowjacket Life Cycle
The survival of the fertilized queen during winter is a crucial part of the yellowjacket’s annual life cycle. When temperatures rise, the overwintered queen emerges from her dormant state and forages to build up her energy reserves. She then selects a nesting site, which can be underground or in protected structures, and constructs a small paper nest using chewed wood fibers and saliva.
Within this starter nest, the queen lays her first batch of eggs, which develop into sterile female workers who emerge weeks later. Once mature, these workers take over nest expansion, foraging, and caring for larvae, allowing the queen to focus solely on laying more eggs. Throughout summer, the colony rapidly grows, reaching thousands of workers by late summer or early fall. In late summer, the colony produces new reproductive individuals—fertile males and new queens. These new queens and males leave the parent nest to mate; after mating, the males die, and the newly fertilized queens seek out protected overwintering sites.
Preventing New Nests
Understanding the yellowjacket’s life cycle provides actionable strategies for preventing new nests. Since only the queen survives winter to start a new colony in spring, early detection and removal of nascent nests are highly effective. Homeowners can inspect common nesting sites in spring, such as eaves, sheds, and ground holes, where a single queen might be found building her initial small nest with only a few cells. Removing these small, golf-ball sized nests early in the season can prevent the establishment of a large colony later.
Reducing attractants around the home also plays a significant role in prevention. Securing outdoor garbage cans with tight-fitting lids and promptly cleaning up food spills or fallen fruit minimizes readily available food sources that draw yellowjackets. Avoiding leaving sugary drinks uncovered outdoors can also help. Trapping queens in early spring, when they emerge and are searching for food and nesting sites, can significantly reduce the yellowjacket population later in the year, as each captured queen means one less colony established.