Yellow jackets are social stinging insects. Understanding their nesting habits helps manage interactions. Their annual life cycle dictates when and where they build their homes.
Annual Nesting Cycle
The annual nesting cycle of yellow jackets begins in early spring when the fertilized queen emerges. She spends the colder months in sheltered spots like hollow logs, tree stumps, under tree bark, or within soil cavities and even man-made structures. Upon emergence, the queen seeks a suitable location to establish a new colony.
The queen then constructs a small, initial paper nest and begins laying her first batch of eggs, usually between 30 to 50 brood cells. She feeds the developing larvae until they mature into sterile female workers, which typically emerge by mid-June. These first workers take over the tasks of nest expansion, foraging for food, and caring for subsequent generations, allowing the queen to focus solely on egg-laying for the remainder of the summer.
Throughout the summer, the colony rapidly expands, with the queen continuously laying eggs. By late summer to early fall, the nest reaches its peak size and activity. At this stage, a mature colony can house thousands of worker wasps and cells.
As fall progresses, the colony shifts its focus to producing reproductive individuals: new queens and males. These new queens and males leave the nest to mate, after which the males perish. Fertilized new queens then seek protected locations for hibernation, ensuring the continuation of the species. The worker wasps and the old queen die with the arrival of cold weather, and the nest is abandoned, not reused in subsequent years.
Nest Characteristics and Locations
Yellow jacket nests are constructed from a distinctive papery material. Its appearance changes as the season progresses. Initially small in spring, a nest can grow to the size of a basketball by late summer. Most nests are enclosed, often football or soccer-shaped, with a single small entrance hole.
Yellow jackets commonly build their nests in concealed locations that offer protection. Many species prefer underground sites, frequently utilizing abandoned rodent burrows, other soil cavities, or hidden spaces within wood piles. They also establish nests in tree cavities, hollow logs, or within rock walls and crevices in masonry.
Some yellow jacket species will construct nests in human-made structures. These aerial or structural nesting sites can include wall voids, attics, eaves, soffits, and even inside sheds or under porches. Nests are also found in dense shrubs, abandoned vehicles, barns, or even unoccupied houses. The choice of location reflects the specific yellow jacket species and the availability of suitable protected spaces.