Yellowjackets find invasive species like brown marmorated stink bugs quite tasty.
Last week we met fierce southern yellowjackets schooling my neighbor on what it meant to get just a little too close to their nest while trimming some grass. This week let’s explore a couple more things about yellowjackets and try to imagine their good side. The inspiration for this episode comes from James Key, an avid naturalist who shot a segment of the video that accompanies this episode.
Spotted lanternflies captured serious attention last month as they took wing in numbers so large that they appeared on weather radar. We know that many predators, including spiders, Carolina mantises, and Chinese mantises, enjoy dining on spotted lanternflies and help contribute to biological control of these dastardly invaders. But did you know that wasps where the second most important group of insect predators attacking spotted lanternflies according to a study by scientists at Penn State? One of the most common groups of predatory wasps associated with invasive spotted lanternflies are members of the yellowjacket clan. Like bees, paper wasps and hornets, yellowjackets are attracted to copious amounts of honeydew excreted by lanternflies as they feed.
Yellowjacket amongst the lanternflies. Is she there for honeydew or a lanternfly snack?
In addition to sweet carbohydrates in the honeydew, yellowjackets are also intent on gathering protein, a nutrient critical to the production of next year’s queens being produced back in the nest during autumn. Watch as a yellowjacket gnaws off the rear end of a spotted lanternfly and zooms back to the colony to feed rump of lanternfly to the developing brood.
First at normal speed and then at half speed, watch as a yellowjacket removes the rear end of a spotted lanternfly and carries the booty back to the nest. In addition to killing spotted lanternflies, yellowjackets also help reduce populations of native pests like caterpillars of fall webworm. Video by James Key and Michael Raupp
In addition to terrorizing invasive spotted lanternflies, yellowjackets help reduce populations of native pests like the fall webworms which build those nests that will soon cloak terminal of branches of walnuts, crabapples, and more than 100 other species of plants. As with many other insects, yellowjackets have a downside as we learned last week (just ask my neighbor), but an upside by providing biological control of some pests; the natural Yin and Yang of living creatures.
Next week we will again visit yellowjackets and some of their stinging cousins to see how you might avoid getting stung at your October picnic or game day tailgate.
Acknowledgements
Bug of the Week thanks James Key for providing the crazy, funny video of a spotted lanternfly losing its rearend to a yellowjacket.