Why Do Yellow Jackets Swarm Around Food & Sugar?

Few things can put a crimp in your day like a yellow jacket swarm inviting itself to your picnic or outdoor event. Even a single yellow jacket can be a serious problem. They are legendarily aggressive and can repeatedly sting as well as bite. Why do they swarm? What is it that attracts them? What can you do about them?

What Causes Yellow Jackets to Swarm?

Yellow jackets swarm when something impacts or sometimes even approaches too closely to an underground nest. Potentially dangerous swarms – consisting of hundreds of yellow jackets – can also form as a reaction to ground vibrations like mowing a lawn. 

What Does a Yellow Jacket Eat?

A yellow jacket’s food source depends on the season. Prior to late summer, their focus is on protein (i.e., meat) … usually in the form of other insects. This is fed to their larvae which, in turn, produce a sugary substance. 

They are omnivores and like sweets, so once late summer arrives… their tastes shift toward more sugary food. This is the time of year when yellow jackets most often encounter humans as they range further from the nest seeking sugar. They are also more inclined to go after sugary human food and drinks this time of year because the flowers that provide sugary nectar are starting to diminish.

What Foods Are Yellow Jackets Attracted To?

The adult yellow jacket feeds on items rich in sugar and carbohydrates – with plant nectar and fruit topping the list. They also have a taste for high-protein foods like insects and fish. In both cases, garbage cans are often attractive to them. The adult yellow jackets chew and condition this food, which they then feed to their larvae.

Do Yellow Jackets Like Sweets?

Yellow jackets hunt for sweets, sugar, and protein to take home to larvae during the late summer. As flowers start to decrease their nectar and die off, yellow jackets then turn toward soda, juices, and sugary human food, Which makes them pests at cookouts and trash cans.

Do Yellow Jackets Eat Sugar Water?

Sugar water is a good bait. Hanging sugar water traps may catch some of the yellow jackets and wasps in your yard, but they also might attract more. To get control over them, call in the professionals from Fox. 

Fox Pest Control, Beating The Summer Bugs! 

Fox Pest Control offers affordable treatment for yellow jackets as well as wasps, mosquitoes, ticks, and other troublesome insects on both residential and commercial properties. We have seasonal treatment plans to help keep pests away all year! Fox Pest Control has the solution for you–. Contact us now!