Yellowjackets - Vespula

Nice example..

of peaceful coexistence. It looks as if the more species present, the less agressivity between them. Here in Western Europe, where only V. vulgaris and V. germanica are present, the latter often dominates and chases away the former, unless disproportionately in minority.
In your region, the best way to distinguish at once between very similar V. vulgaris and V. flavopilosa seems to be the distinctly yellower head and thorax of the latter, especially the spots on mesoscutellum and ocular sinuses (blue arrow).

… Richard Vernier, 17 March, 2008 - 7:23am

yes,

in the beggining, V. germanica was very aggresive. once tons of other species showed up, they realized they cant win and just seemed to keep to themselves. they showed the most aggresion when 2 of the same species met that were from seperate colonies.

i agree about the destinguishing between V. Vulgaris and Flavopilosa. it realy helps to see the 2 species side by side. its seems easier to see the destinguishing marks.

… vespula vulgaris, 17 March, 2008 - 6:03pm

What ...

What are you feeding them? Just sugar water?

… J.D. Roberts, 16 March, 2008 - 8:37pm

yeah,

just sugar water. they are in a sort of "frezy" to feed as at this time of the season, there was no natural food sources left for them.

… vespula vulgaris, 17 March, 2008 - 5:55pm

...

That's what I figured. The odd thing with my local yellow jackets, is that I'll get a few at some plain old sugar water, but I'll get dozens and dozens using the hummingbird feeder mix. I guess it's just mixed better.

… J.D. Roberts, 17 March, 2008 - 6:30pm

maybe

there was more sugar in the hummingbird mix? with yellowjackets, the more sugar the better!

… vespula vulgaris, 18 March, 2008 - 5:51am