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Self defense, nothing.  All stinging things will sting if you bump into 
their nest or swat them.  The thing I don't like about yellow jackets 
is that they will often sting if you just walk around near them.  That 
and that they gather around my supper.  These are Yankee yellow jackets.

Honey bees, bumble bees, paperwasps, hornets, are all mild-mannered 
friendly bugs - never have any trouble with them.

Ginda

On Tuesday, February 11, 2003, at 10:27  AM, road's end farm wrote:

> They certainly will sting if the nest is disturbed, or if someone 
> starts swatting them. Whether this is aggression or selfdefense 
> depends, I suppose, on your point of view.
>
> A nest where you don't want it can be dealt with by dumping water on 
> it (a garden hose is good, if you can get it close enough); they don't 
> seem to recognize the water deluge as an attack and don't go for the 
> person behind the hose (at least, the ones here don't). When they dry 
> out they will probably go elsewhere, though it may take more than one 
> drenching. Admittedly this technique isn't very useful if the nest is 
> in a stack of straw bales inside a barn --
>
> --Rivka
>
> On Tuesday, February 11, 2003, at 11:10 AM, hector black wrote:
>
> > Maybe those Yankee jackets are less agressive than our Rebel ones.  I 
> > had a
> > nest in my orchard a couple of times.  Once scything by hand I met 
> > them and
> > was covered from head to toe with painful stings.  Other times they 
> > nest in
> > the blueberry patch and don't take kindly to pickers who come near - 
> > same
> > thing in the blackberry patch.  I don't usually bother wild creatures 
> > but
> > have very low tolerance for yellow jackets.   Hector Black  zone 6 
> > middle TN
> >
> >     I'm sure they have their place in the scheme of things, their 
> > "niche" or
> > whatever, but I just don't want it close to mine.
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "road's end farm" <organic101@linkny.com>
> > To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> > Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 7:21 PM
> > Subject: Re: [NAFEX] yellowjackets
> >
> >
> > > In my experience yellow jackets aren't aggressive at all unless you
> > > start swatting them or disturb the nest. We have a lot of them, and 
> > > I've
> > > never been stung except as a result of accidentally halfsquashing 
> > > one or
> > > messing up a nest, and neither have other people here. I think they 
> > > get
> > > their reputation for aggressiveness from people who start swatting at
> > > them first.
> > >
> > > I believe they will do some pollination.
> > >
> > > Rivka (Finger Lakes New York, zone 5 mostly)
>
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