I have noticed the absence of yellow jackets here in Manitoba this year
as well. In addition field mice which were very abundant have also
disappeared. I attribute this to the very severe winter we had last year.
 
Regards, Doug Henry, Lockport, Manitoba.
 
On Fri, 30 Aug 1996, Ted Fischer wrote:
 
>   REGARDING           Where are the yellow jackets?
>
> Dave Green wrote a rather detailed post (8/30/96) about recognizing the German
> yellow jacket, which is usually an annoying pest around our honey houses this
> time of the year.
>
> I say "usually" because this year I haven't had a single one bothering me or
> my hives.  I can't believe it!  Last year, when I had a mite catastrophe in
> the making, not only was my honey house overridded with these insects (I had
> my "bug light" on continuously and had the scorched critters drop directly
> into a trash can underneath it), but they got into dying hives to hasten the
> demise of mite infested colonies which would no longer defend themselves.
> This year nothing at all.  I even put my extracted supers into the apiary for
> the bees to clean out, and not even these has attracted a yellow jacket, to my
> knowledge.
>
> What is going on?  Is this unique to my area (southeastern Michigan)?  Not
> that I mind it, to be sure, but it really has gotten my curiosity up.  I
> wonder if the varroa mite has invaded the yellow jackets.  This is kind of
> far-fetched, but what could have happened to cause such a radical population
> crash, the likes of which I have never seen before?  Maybe it was the harsh
> winter we had last year (but we have had such winters before).
>
> Any other yellow jacket experiences out there?
>
> Ted Fischer
>