Common European Yellowjacket (Vespula vulgaris) lives in temperate grasslands across North America. It feeds on insects and sweets.
Fascinating facts about the Common European Yellowjacket
- The nest of Vespula vulgaris works best at about 32 °C, the temperature at which the paper structure can maintain its internal warmth for brood development. When the sun or ambient heat pushes the nest above this optimum, the workers switch to active cooling, beating their wings rapidly to fan air through the thin walls. This wing-fanning behaviour dissipates excess heat and keeps the nest from overheating, protecting the larvae inside.
- A Vespula vulgaris colony can contain between three thousand and eight thousand larvae at its peak, and the founding queen is capable of laying roughly two hundred to three hundred eggs each day for a continuous period of twenty-four days. The colony is initiated in April when the queen emerges from hibernation and builds the first cells, and it expands through the summer months until temperatures fall in October and the queen dies.
- After locating a suitable cavity, the queen performs a distinctive flight display to mark the site. She hovers in front of the entrance, flying forward and backward while tracing a sideways figure-eight that expands to a radius of about 183 cm, then proceeds in a straight line up to roughly eighteen metres away before returning.
- The wasps produce a chemical that repels ants and secrete it around the base of the petiole to avoid ant predation. The petiole attaches the nest to the substrate, and the repellent chemical is applied there to protect the connection.
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.
At a glance
RangeNorth America
HabitatTemperate grasslands
DietInsects and sweets
About the Common European Yellowjacket
As the sun casts its warm glow over the bustling landscape, the Common European Yellowjacket comes alive, its bright yellow and black striped body a blur of motion as it darts from flower to flower in search of sweet nectar. With a frenetic energy, it zigzags through the air, its delicate wings beating at a mesmerizing pace as it navigates the intricate social hierarchy of its colony. In this whirlwind of activity, the yellowjacket's remarkable industry and cunning are on full display, a testament to the enduring power of these tiny, yet formidable, creatures.
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