Hi tweets,
Regarding bad-tempered hornets in late summer, I have read that most
yellow-jackets and bald-faced hornets live in hives most of their short
spring-summer lives, but come fall, the hive community falls apart and
the bees are then forced into solitary living. While in the hive, there
is generally enough food for all, but once the community falls apart,
it's every hornet for herself. I had always thought this explained their
late summer bad temper, but the enzyme theory sounds pretty interesting
as well.
Janet Partlow
partlowj at elwha.evergreen.edu

On Tue, 20 Aug 1996, Tom Foote wrote:

>
>
> On Mon, 19 Aug 1996, Paul Talbert wrote:
>
> [snip..]
>
> The whole experience enhanced my appreciation of wasps considerably!
> >
> Tweets--
>
> Every late summer I've been in the San Juans, the yellow jackets
> have been pesky..it seems to come earlier each year, and a number
> of people have been stung..most notable recent tales are:
> a woman who swallowed a wasp that crawled in her pop can..stung
> her three times in the throat causing her throat to try and
> close up...another woman, at my place on Lopez who picked up
> a cup of juice and got stung on the tongue..a friend who came
> to a wedding got stung on his ring finger, woke up the next day
> with a black finger and blood poison going up his arm and had to
> get his wedding band cut off..
>
> The word from the natives is that this is a particularly bad
> year. Many people are getting stung and it's a real test of
> patience to try and eat anything outside, as you quickly have
> a buzzing entourage.
>
> My understanding of this behavior is that the wasps have lost
> their power to digest their food because of their discontinuation
> of the production of a necessary enzyme, and are, consequently,
> ravenous and in very bad temper while they starve to death..
>
> Anyone know if that's an accurate assessment?
>
> Tom
>