Death to the Queen

Yellow jacket wasps are bastards.  Which would explain their taxonomy - Vespula vulgaris. 

These nasty insects do not winter in a colony like honey bees.   Only an impregnated yellow jacket queen hibernates overwinter until the spring temperatures of April warm-up enough for the queen to emerge from her long winter slumber and seek a new nest site.    

Trapping the yellow jacket queen is an exceedingly efficient means of putting the hurt on the bastard wasp population around your home.  For every queen trapped and killed in the spring there will be one to five thousand fewer bastard yellow jackets during the summer and into the fall.  

Lest there be any misunderstanding – I hate yellow jacket wasps.    Every spring I trap and kill one or more of the queen bastards in my pheromone-baited trap.

Bastard insect sociopaths...