Differences Between Wasps and Yellowjackets

Morphology

• Eastern yellowjackets range in size from 0.5 to 0.7 inches long, depending on their caste. The queen is larger than the workers and the males. The queen's body is robust and her abdomen is decorated with yellow and black stripes, which are also determined by caste. Conversely, northern paper wasps range in size from 0.6 to 0.83 inches long, have a very slender body, are reddish-brown, and have a tapered head, which distinguish them from yellowjackets. The wasps' social system is less hierarchical; one only can tell the queen from other females in that she's the only one allowed to reproduce.

Reproduction and Growth

• Young yellowjacket queens mate in the fall. After mating, the males die quickly and the young queens look for protected places to overwinter. They will build a small nest in an old rodent burrow or a cavity under a dead tree root and lay eggs. Hatchlings will be sterile females, and the queens will continue to lay worker eggs until halfway through the season. Then queens will lay fertilized female eggs -- which will hatch and produce the next season's queens -- and unfertilized male eggs. A colony can have as many as 5,000 yellowjackets. Paper wasp females mate at the end of the summer. The females' venom attracts the males. Queens lay fertilized eggs into cells in their nest. The larvae that hatch are fed and protected by the queen until they're ready to pupate. The first generation emerges as small, infertile females who become the workers in the wasp colony.

Lifespan and Behavior

• Yellowjacket workers live until the first hard frost. Males die shortly after mating and the queens live for a year. Male paper wasps don't die right after mating but, rather, live until winter. Yellowjackets can be aggressive, and they will sting to protect their nests. Paper wasps tend to be more docile, although as the colony grows, they become more aggressive about defending their nest.

Habitat

• Both eastern yellowjackets and northern paper wasps live in woodlands and savannas, in temperate climates, around the world. Yellowjackets build underground nests and can live in the country, city or on farms. Northern paper wasps' founding queen makes a nest out of paper in the eaves of buildings, porch ceilings or other outdoor structures. The nests generally are quite simple, although some can have as many as 12,000 cells.