11/04/2025
Bees!!
Specifically: yellow jackets.
The yellow jackets have been visiting us (BUZZING AND BOTHERING US) each morning for tea time and each afternoon for lunch.
We talk about their life cycles and why they are buzzing around us to help understand their behavior.
They are just looking for the last bits of food as the cold weather approaches. They don’t really want anything to do with us - but we have good smelling food that is attracting them.
In the fall, the bees become more aggressive as they seek the last bits of food at the end of their life cycles.
In North Carolina, yellow jacket colonies die off in the winter, with only the fertilized queens surviving by hibernating in sheltered spots like logs, soil, or structures. During this hibernation, their activity stops until the following spring.
So… we left out a few cups of tea + honey last night and came into a surprise today! TONS of (dead) yellow jackets on these tea cups!
It was a good way to get to explore them more closely and really see what these critters are like.
