What Animal Will Dig Up A Yellow Jacket Nest

What Animals Set on Yellow Jacket Nests in the Ground?

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Yellowish jackets can ruin an otherwise idyllic summer day every bit they fizz menacingly around pools, picnics and other outdoor areas frequented by humans. Living in concealed underground colonies, you may outset be enlightened of their presence when your lawnmower runs over the nest, disturbing its 5,000 or then residents who are each capable of delivering multiple painful stings. Some species of wild animals are undaunted past stingers and find yellow jackets a tasty treat worth digging for.

Underground Nesting

Yellow jackets prefer hugger-mugger nests, sometimes moving into an abandoned beast or snake couch. They also will nest in hollow logs, hollow walls or other easily accessible cavities, as well as protected areas such as under bushes or in tall grass. The yellowish jackets construct an clandestine paper nest approximately the size of a soccer ball where young are nurtured to machismo with a paste of insect protein. Adults feed on flower nectar.

Large Mammals

Amid big mammals in the United States, bears are the most likely to consistently feed on yellowish jackets. Insects provide a large portion of a black bear's diet, and a yellow jacket nest provides a convenient and nutritious meal. A comport's thick coat protects it from aroused swarming adults while the acquit slurps upward nymphs and larvae out of the nest. If you encounter bear dung when y'all are out on a hike and poke it apart with a stick, it is not unusual to notice exoskeletons of xanthous jackets that accept been passed through the behave's organization undigested.

Small Mammals

While raccoons and skunks are non normally animals yous intendance to have wandering effectually your property, they tin can be beneficial when it comes to routing out nests of yellow jackets. Like bears, skunks gain a large per centum of their dietary protein from insects and are one of the yellowish jacket'south main predators. Depending where you lot live, moles, shrews and badgers will also consume yellow jackets in their nests. In the southern states, armadillos have precipitous digging claws, long burrowing noses and natural armor that equips them to swallow yellow jackets.

Encouraging Natural Predation

Hornets, including yellow jackets, retire inside their colony at nighttime, making it an platonic time for bears, skunks, badgers and raccoons to pay them a call. You lot tin set out an "all you can consume cafe" sign of sorts by pouring some dear on the entrance to the xanthous jacket'southward nest at night. A neat nose and insatiable sweet tooth will direct a nearby animal to rapidly hone in on the honey and the high-protein meal within the nest.

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