Tawny Simisky Explains Fall Yellowjacket Interactions to 'Daily Hampshire Gazette'

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The Daily Hampshire Gazette recently spoke with Tawny Simisky, an extension entomologist in the Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment, about the eastern yellowjacket, and why people in Western Massachusetts experience more frequent interactions with this stinging insect (pleasant or otherwise) in the fall:

"Conflicts between humans and the eastern yellowjacket, or Vespula maculifrons, usually increase in the fall. 'This is because the annual colonies that these yellowjackets produced are large after having been built by workers since the springtime,' [Simisky said]. 'They like the same foods that we like to eat outside, particularly at picnics or fall season fairs. They’re really out there [searching] the landscape for sugar.'"

— The Daily Hampshire Gazette

Click here to read the interview in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.