Okay, there are some stingers out there

It's Yellowjacket season. Our late summer recreations are colliding with those black-and-yellow striped wasps that look like, well, WASPS. They home in on sugary picnic treats such as catsup and ice cream.

Eastern Yellowjacket, Vespula maculifrons on fallen apples

Yellowjackets search for high-calorie sweets in overripe fruit. They're also liable to surprise you from the inside when you tip up the can of Coke you'd set aside between sips.

Blackjacket, Vespula consobrina

Several types of Yellowjackets (genus Vespula in the family Vespidae) inhabit Halibut Point. They live fairly innocuously in underground nests, but will defend them aggressively if provoked. Unlike bees, they are capable of stinging multiple times without sacrificing either their stingers or their lives.

Widow Yellowjacket, Vespula vidua

Guard wasps release an attack pheromone to mobilize the entire colony if they sense a threat to the nest. A playground in Topsfield was shut down this week when children running up a ramp paid dearly for disturbing the tranquility of Yellowjackets living in a hive underneath it.

Parasitic Yellowjacket, Dolichovespula adulterina

Yellowjackets that nest communally and share at least some work responsibilities are considered social wasps.

Northern Aerial Yellowjacket, Dolichovespula norvegicoides

Their conspicuously striped patterns have been adopted as a defensive measure by insects in many unrelated families.

Common Aerial Yellowjacket, Dolichovespula arenaria

"Yellowjackets" technically consists of two genera within the Vespidae family. The third is true hornets, a more southerly group which I have not yet encountered at Halibut Point.

Bald-faced Hornet, Dolichovespula maculata

The most formidable of the stinging Yellowjackets is the Bald-faced Hornet whose name comes in part from its preference for building large aerial nests in trees and shrubs, as true hornets do.

Northern Paper Wasp, Polistes fuscatus

Besides Yellowjackets the other major group of Vespidae is the Polistine or Paper wasps.

European Paper Wasp nest, Polistes dominula

Paper wasps live communally in honeycomb nests they build in shrubs or on sheltered parts of houses. The nests are limited to a single layer of open cells with minimal outer covering.

Umbrella Paper Wasp, Fuscopolistes

Like bees, adult wasps sustain themselves primarily on flower nectar. However most wasps are well equipped to kill other insects as food for their young.

That capability is usually only a nuisance to creatures the size of humans. In all my years roaming Halibut Point I have never been stung. But the vivid markings are there for a reason.