20 



Birds & Nature Magazine 



Jugging Yellow Jackets 



By A. R. M. SPAID 



IT is a good thing to know how to 

 destroy a troublesome colony of hor- 

 nets or yellow jackets, but it is a better 

 thing to watch these interesting creatures 

 and discover their life history. When I 

 was a boy among boys and we discovered 

 a hornets' nest, we made our attack more 

 cautiously than in the case of the wood 

 wasp, for the Vespa hornet's sight is much 

 keener than that of most Polistes, and her 

 flight is swifter. Then, too, the hornet has 

 a very irritable temper. Once disturbed 

 she dabs at the first object that moves, and 

 her aim is pretty accurate. To attempt to 

 secure her inhabited nest seems to be a 

 foolhardy undertaking, and few boys are 

 brave enough to do it. Yet it can be done 

 with very little risk. Watch for the mo- 

 ment when the outside of the nest is clear 

 of hornets, then close the hole quickly with 

 a wad of leaves large enough to stop the 

 opening securely, cut off the limb to which 

 the nest is attached, and run away before 

 any of the absent hornets return. On the 

 hole being unstopped the imprisoned hor- 

 nets come out and fly back immediately to 

 the old position of their home. 



In taking a nest built on a cedar last July 

 a pocket-knife with a black handle had 

 been stuck into a large tree which stood 

 about ten feet away. After the nest had 

 been carried off and the hornets liberated 

 they returned and, attacking the knife, 

 stung it from nine o'clock in the morning 

 until sundown. 



Vespa, like her cousin, Polistes, begins 

 her paper house in the spring, her home at 

 first being no larger than a big pipe ; but it 

 gradually increases until a nest sometimes 

 becomes two feet long. The hornets feed 

 their young principally on insects, the com- 

 mon housefly being a favorite morsel of 

 diet. It is while searching for these that 

 the hornet makes a nuisance of herself 

 and gets into trouble. She visits the farm- 

 house for flies, and her irascible temper 

 leads her to sting somebody. If the nest 

 cannot be located and destroyed, many of 

 the colony may be caught in the following 



manner : Take a timothy straw and impale 

 the dead fly on the end of it. By holding 

 this bait before the buzzing hornet she is 

 easily induced to seize it, and while still 

 clinging to her prey she may be thrust into 

 a basin of hot water. In this way the 

 members of a troublesome community may 

 be greatly reduced. 



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A Nest of Hornets that Has Been "Jugged" 



Vespa, the yellow-jacket, generally builds 

 in the ground where a decayed log or stump 

 has left the conditions suitable for an ex- 

 cavation. One species is partial to homes 

 above ground, the branch of a young pine 

 being a favorite location. Such nests, how- 

 ever, are liable to be rifled by the ants; 

 at least, I have found many deserted nests 

 in which the larvae were being eaten by 

 the ants. Hornets sometimes prey upon a 

 colony of yellow- jackets with telling effect, 

 catching and carrying many of them off to 

 feed their own 5^oung. Before the season 

 is over a yellow-jackets' nest, started by 

 a single female, may contain several 

 thousand black-and-yellow-banded wasps. 

 Their nests are often destroyed by skunks 

 and foxes, who dig out the colonies at night 

 and eat both old and young. It is a serious 

 matter for a plowman, sometimes a mere 

 boy, to turn up a nest of mad yellow- 

 jackets, which, by attacking the team, may 

 cause a runaway. They cling to the horses 

 (Continued on page 32) 



