Yellow jackets normally have a diet of insects. When these insects disappears in late summer or early fall, the yellow jackets get an appetite for much the same food and drink as those consumed by man. The yellow jacket has a smooth stinger that can be used to sting multiple times, sometime resulting in a life-threatening situation if the person is allergic to their venom. The yellow jacket colony’s life begins in April or May when the overwintered queen emerges and begins the establishment of a nest which is normally located in a soil cavity such as an abandoned mouse nest or hollow tree. The first generation of infertile workers she produces undertakes all tasks of nest expansion. The colony rapidly increases in size and the number of adult yellow jackets may reach several hundred by August. During this peak population period, the colony produces reproductive cells that mature and provide future queens and reproductive males that eventually leave the nest for mating flights. The parent colony begins to dwindle rapidly in fall; the original queen and all workers die. Newly mated queens are the only members of the colony that survive the winter.