# Yellowjacket / paperwasp winter feeding ?



## jeremynj

Does anyone know what I would feed a nest ( 10-20 wasps ) of yellow jackets?


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## dixiebooks

I recommend just a very small amount of gas in a jar - just cover the bottom. After dark, invert the jar over the nest and grind it into the ground to get a good seal. leave jar in place overnight. By morning, the YJ's will have eaten their final meal. -james


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## RogerCrum

Sevin


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## jeremynj

Ha. I want to feed them so they survive. I removed them from an outside light fixture and want to keep them. I gave them a meat scrap so I will see what they do with that. Some sites say that the queen leaves in the fall and the rest of the nest dies off but maybe they are still around because of our warm weather this year.


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## guyross

Google for comic Jerry Clower stories. I think they used too much gas I recommend working at night without a flashlight.


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## beehonest

I know they like sugar water, put up a hummingbird feeder that has yellow on it and they will take it over. Why do you want to save them?


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## rwurster

They seem to like hot dogs or the scraps of meat left on chicken bones. They seem to prefer the chicken


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## dixiebooks

oh. I was hoping you were kidding about feeding them. Can't imagine anyone wanting to anything with YJ's except eradicate them. -james


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## dixiebooks

guyross said:


> Google for comic Jerry Clower stories. I think they used too much gas I recommend working at night without a flashlight.


I remember my dad gassing them then lighting them up. I recall one time a huge fireball shot out and barely missed him. It was like a huge roman candle. But I learned there is no need to burn them and it takes very little gas. -james


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## jeremynj

I have no reason to kill them. I wouldn't have even know they were there if it wasn't for fixing the light fixture.

Yellowjackets will eat insects from the garden and it is important to maintain some diversity around here. There are plenty of other wasps getting killed, I'll do what i can to save a few.

I got a few paying jobs to remove baldface hornet nests last summer and I managed to keep the larva of one nest and reposition in my yard. The hornets built another nest around the disk of larva.


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## robo mantis

They eat any kind of meat/ insect. Then feed them honey/ honey diluted in water. Honeywater doesn't spoil as fast as sugarwater. I have a friend who keeps them so anymore questions ask me i should know.


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## Gypsi

They seem to die off around here, and I am in Texas. You must be having a really warm winter! (if you need any more yj's just let me know, I'll ship them up next September.


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## robo mantis

Please don't ship yellowjackets. You will end up introducing invasive ones. I also believe its against the law. Everyone has enough yjs to go around.


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## Gypsi

I was joking. Should have used a smiley, sorry. (My sense of humor is trying hard to survive paperwork and Allstate Insurance.)


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## robo mantis

I had a feeling but i know people who have tried it. That's why i was a bit concerned lol! Good luck with paperwork  hahaha


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## naturaledge

I think they all die off in winter and the queen burrows ito the groung and starts fresh in the spring


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## tefer2

I think you are asking the wrong group of people for yellowjacket care. Most of us are beekeepers in here and hate hornets, and yellowjackets more. You need to find a bunch of hornet huggers to talk to.


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## beehonest

JeremyNJ, there are certainly no shortage of them here in east TN! I have never seen so many yellowjackets or Hornets. I have battled with them ever since I moved here. I have not noticed any reduction of bugs either? There are plenty of bugs and spiders, bugs I have never seen before. If you run low come pay me a visit you can have as many as you want!


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## Daniel Y

From what I can tell a lot of beekeepers are really successful with feeding the hornets by simply having bee hives. In fact I have seen some pictures that indicate it is a really good method. they feed hornets by the hundreds.
Now why is it that it never seems things like Hornets get a plague like Varroa or SHB?


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## robo mantis

Daniel Y said:


> Now why is it that it never seems things like Hornets get a plague like Varroa or SHB?


They do! Yellow jackets have very low success rates. In spring 80% die in the founding stage. Lots of the queens try to take over each others nests and fight to the death. The few lucky ones get parasites. There are parasitic wasps and such that kill them. If they get lucky and survive they reproduce exponentially. Up to a few thousand. So out of all the queens you see in the spring only a handful are successful. Most of the yellow jackets you see in late summer are actually from one to two colonies only. Its just they produce tons of workers when successful.


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## FlowerPlanter

If you want to feed your yellow jackets you should get some honey bees. 

Then your yellow jackets will be very happy


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