The yellow jacket queen plays a major role in the foundation and development of the colony. She is the only female in the colony capable of laying eggs. Loss of the queen results in the decline of the colony. Other females can transform a non-functioning ovary to oviposit eggs, but due to lack of sperm, exclusively male individuals will be born. Such a colony has no chance of continuing the breeding. In this case, yellow jackets are very similar to bees.
The appearance of the queen yellow jacket
Among the insect the queen stands out by one characteristic – its larger size. If working individuals have a body length of 16-18 mm, she grows to 20-25 mm. The head, thorax and abdomen are clearly delineated, there is a thin waist, characteristic of all stalk-bellied insects. On the sides of the head there are compound faceted eyes. The net structure of the organ allows you to look in several directions simultaneously. The antennae are sensory organs that report the state of the environment.
It has two pairs of transparent wings, with small hairs on the body. At rest, the wings are folded and pressed tightly along the body. Due to the presence of a narrow waist, the insect’s body is folded almost in half, which allows it to sting the enemy at any angle. The sting of the female is a modified ovipositor and is connected to a gland that produces venom. It is used as a weapon against enemies that threaten the colony or the queen. To hunt, the queen uses jaws that can chew through the tough chitinous shell.
Strong ruminants (jaws) are adapted for a variety of functions:
- tearing and chewing food;
- chewing passages;
- preparing building material for nests.
Life cycle of the queen yellow jacket
The life expectancy of the yellow jacket queen is 1 year. During this time, she has a lot to do: overwinter alone, establish and increase her colony, raise new queens.
The development of queen yellow jacket in the spring
In April, when the weather is consistently warm with temperatures above +14 °C, young queens fly out of the shelter in search of a place to build a new home. With their strong jaws they chew off the top layer of tree bark, which is used as a building material. When the wood and saliva mix, a pulp of semi-liquid consistency is obtained. From it the queen moulds the cells and walls of the structure. After drying, a material similar to coarse grey paper is obtained.
The cell is usually suspended on paper pulp stems. The nest site is a tree branch, a hollow, a crevice, an earth hole or human structures. The yellow jacket`s queen may inhabit an attic, a chimney or simply a beam under the roof. This neighbourhood becomes dangerous when the number of stinging insects increases. Open cells without a protective sheath are arranged in two ways:
– horizontally, with the cells facing downwards;
– vertically with cells and larvae are perpendicular to the ground.
The yellow jacket queen lays eggs in empty cells to keep them from falling out, the queen uses a sticky secretion to glue them in place. Each cell is filled with an egg as construction is completed. Development of the offspring, including several larvae occurs in 2-3 weeks. The larvae are about the length of an adult, while being much thicker than it. They are all white or yellowish in colour and lack legs. Their digestive organs are not adapted to plant food. The queen, and after the working females, feed them fermented protein food.
What do yellow jackets feed their larvae? The diet is wide and includes various types of insects (flies, butterflies, beetles) and pieces of meat or fish that females find during flights. Carnivorous larvae cannot chew on their own, so they receive lumps of "minced meat". Wasps hold the lump of food near the head of the larva for 8-10 s, the rest goes to feed the next larva. Having reached a certain stage, the larvae close the cell with a lid and pupate. After a few days, a new yellow jacket will emerge.
At this stage, the queen has to simultaneously engage in lodge construction, erecting new cells, continue to lay larvae in them, and obtain food for them.
The larvae require a lot of food for full development later on.
At first, the food consists of plant substances rich in sugars. These are found in many flowers and fruits and are collected in the surrounding nature or on the table of people living in the neighbourhood.
Feeding in yellow jackets is not a one-way process. The larvae regurgitate droplets of liquid that are licked up by the worker insects. This interaction is called trafallaxis. It helps the insects exchange information and survive in the absence of food.
The development of queen yellow jacket in the summer
When new offspring emerge, they begin to build cells, care for and feed the larvae. The yellow jacket queen, like the bee queen, is only laying eggs during this period. At this time, the nest starts to grow very quickly.
The development of queen yellow jacket in the early autumn
As autumn approaches, not only the warm period comes to an end, but also the life cycle of most yellow jacket nest inhabitants. The males and females that have been released begin to mate. The males then die, as do the males of bees. (Drones).
Meanwhile, the queen weakens and begins to lay fewer and fewer eggs, then stops her reproductive cycle altogether. Having lost her fertility, she loses her vitality and becomes weak. The decrepit insect also lacks nutrition: the worker wasps themselves begin to die.
In autumn, the worker wasps cease to exist as well, having been industriously feeding the growing larvae and the queen wasp all summer, actively building and guarding the dwelling. All these individuals are female, but due to their infertility they fulfil the role of “service personnel”.
By this time, the last larvae laid by the wasp queen are female and capable of reproduction. The males that hatched before fulfil their direct mission and after fertilisation also die.
Interesting! The fertilisation process, which occurred once in autumn, is sufficient to produce larvae throughout the following summer.
The development of queen yellow jacket in the late autumn
Parasites settle in the empty nest and often cause the death of the remaining nest inhabitants. Either the coming frost will do its job, in any case, only young yellow jacket queens will survive the coming winter. Future queens leave the hive, burrow under the bark of trees or in the crevices of old wooden buildings and fall asleep in their secret shelters until the onset of warm spring days. A dormant yellow jacket queen can be found in attics and basements, in abandoned hollow trees and earth holes.
The development of queen yellow jacket in the winter
In winter, insects fall into a state similar to torpor. In this case, the functions and all processes of the organism are slowed down. At the beginning of spring, the females awaken and start their activity aimed at creating a new nest. First, the yellow jacket must gain strength and replenish its body with nutrients. For this purpose, the yellow jacket queen eats intensively for several days.
Warning! If a yellow jacket nest is found in a storage room in winter, it can be eliminated without the threat of yellow jacket attacks. During this period, the insects are no longer present. After destroying the nest, the surface should be thoroughly treated with special means. This will help to avoid unwanted neighbours with insects that want to build a new hive near the old place they have occupied.
The yellow jacket queen can sting
Yellow jacket are more likely than other species to attack humans. This is due to their instinct to protect the nest and their aggressive nature. In late spring and early summer, the queen makes many flights to feed her offspring. Any actions in her direction can provoke the application of the sting. The sting of the yellow jacket queen in a healthy person causes a local reaction characterised by redness and painful sensations. Such symptoms disappear after a few hours, rarely days.
The sting of the yellow jacket queen is sharp without barbs, so it can be used repeatedly. Unlike the bee queen, which does not use its sting against humans, the yellow jacket queen is more aggressive and may attack in case of danger.
