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 >