I thought you'd like this.

My husband was brave enough to capture the queen in all this chaos so I'll have a photo of her up today sometime. I'm not sure if it was the same queen each time-it looked it-one came and went 3 or 4 times.

I was amazed to see them all peacefully sharing-the Bald-faceds did at one point push a lot of the smaller ones out-but it didn't last long and no one was killed. :]

Please see comment by Richard Vernier under this image: http://bugguide.net/node/view/175582/bgimage

Thanks! That is interesting. I let her go a few hours ago and I'll have to watch to see if one comes back. Poor thing-maybe being caught will break her of that habit...do you think it's possible.

Also Is it possible to mark an individual-say with a dot of paint or something to see if it's the same one?

won't break the cycle of behavior. If anything it would just discourage her from coming to that location.

I hope to do more research on this particular subject if I can work things out with college. One of the main things I want to find out is if it is only D. arenaria that do this and why

Yes it certainly is possible to paint mark a wasp. You simply catch the wasp, but her in the freezer while peeking in every 30 seconds or so to ensure that you don't leave her in too long. Then once she is immobile, you cut a small hole through a plastic bag and place that hole over the thorax of the wasp (the hole should be no bigger than the thorax). The bag will protect the rest of the wasp from the paint. I use red spray paint.

I will look for one and mark it then. Thanks for that info. :]

How far does a hornet usually travel from her home hive? I'm curious to see if I can track them a bit-them seem to head in all directions. I noticed that there seem to be 2 groups of Bald-faced-they either go west or east.(never north or south)

I know that sounds like a silly question.

For about a week I was trying different things to see what attracted hornets and wasps most. They liked the apple juice, and different sodas & juices and sugar water plus an apple and some types of meats but they like this the most! I was amazed! (note to self-no apple sauce at the fall picnics)

You should contact Sam Droege. He is very interested in just this kind of thing: what attracts yellowjackets, and how are populations and species composition changing from year to year. Contact me off-site and I'll forward the e-mail that outlines what he is doing. BugEric24ATyahooDOTcom.

Last year was a struggle to locate any colonies, this year I have located 10 in the past two weeks

There also seems to be a surplus of flavopilosa like never before...