I didn't mean to be so critical of your statement about yellowjacket
behavior/physiology, Tom, but I was taken aback by a hypothesis that seemed
so unlikely. I just looked in a few insect books to see if I could find
any support for what Janet wrote, and it seems that indeed the nests break
up in the fall, but no one said anything about food being harder to find or
aggression increasing. I think fall is the time of maximal populations,
which may be one of the reasons they visit us more.

I'll try to get the time to look in E. O. Wilson's _Insect Societies_ to
see if I can learn more about this.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 206-756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 206-756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416