Update...Yellow Jackets and Smoke

Yesterday my husband went out with all his bee protective gear on to go battle another yellow jacket nest. This time, he did not bring his smoker with him, as he did not think it made that much of a difference the last few times he used it. Well...he will be using the smoker from now on when killing yellow jacket nests!! He said that when he dug his shovel into the ground, his arms and face were covered with angry, stinging yellow jackets in no time!! He only got actually stung once as they could not get through the cloth, but being so up and personal with angry hornets was unnerving and a bit of a nuisance. The other nests that he did smoke did not react with so much enthusiasm.

One theory as to why the smoke works to calm yellow jackets and honey bees is that they instinctively believe there is a forest fire, and so have their minds and attention focused on preparing for something other than the intruding human. Another theory is that the smoke interrupts their ability to communicate with each other, so they can't team attack an intruder. With honey bees, they buzz much louder when you smoke them, but maybe they are only yelling "What did you say???!?!?" to each other...