In article , "Catty One"
wrote:

Yes, yellow jackets are notoriously aggressive ... best to rid the lawn of a
nest or avoid at all costs.

Depends on what one calls aggressive. Yellowjackets are not prone to
stinging if their nest is not molested; they will probably never sting
anyone who doesn't accidentally step on one or push up against it or
intentionally harrass it. But if you're having a picnic they'll be very
pushy about getting on any meat that's being prepared or eaten outside,
there is no way to make them go away if there is meat in the vicinity,
they are aggressive at scavenging meat.

If their ground nest is where children are playing & so apt to stomp on
the nest & excite the yellow jackets enough to swarm, they should be
gotten rid of. If they are close enough to make picnicking outdoors
unpleasant, it hardly matters that they're not apt to sting in that
situations, it's no fun to have them crawling all over the paperplates
scavenging meat, so again the nest will need to be gotten rid of.

But if they're in an out of the way spot they are a benefit to the garden.
Paper wasps are even more gentle & not pushy because they're not
interested in scrap meat off picnic plates, & they do spectacular good in
the garden preying upon pest-insects. Their paper nests are most often
somewhere out of the way, but if they could be accidentally knocked into,
the spot should be marked with a flag so no one bumbles into them. They
are extremely docile & won't attack people who haven't first assaulted the
nest. Their nest is transient besides; a paperwasp nest will be abandoned
the same year it is made, &amp they'll never return to that spot. I regret
that some years they don't nest in my yard at all; I am glad when they are
here as they keep the garden healthy.

I'm less delighted by ground-nesting yellow jackets as they're too easily
in the way & can disturb one's peace of mind despite that they they never
sting unless stupidly provoked. The bald-faced wasp & paper wasp are so
extremely docile that fearing them is just silly, & their nests are small
enough there's never too many of them for comfort. But ground
yellowjackets can have very extensive colonies & will get testy if any
part of the colony gets molested. Also because they eat garbage & dead
things, they're not as skilled at being predators of pest-insects as are
paperwasps, though they do also prey on insects. For sedate transient
paperwasps though, people should not worry about them & should be glad to
have them, but if I had yellowjackets in the ground nearby I'd consider
getting rid of those.

-paghat the ratgirl

"Vox Humana" wrote in message
news

wrote in message
oups.com...
Are you sure you were dealing with bees and not yellow jackets, your
description of their behavior is more like wasps.


Oh, you're right. They were yellow jackets.


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