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Blackjackets

Vespula consobrina

Photo by shebebusynow
Published on Project Noah
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44.504, -124.022

Field Notes

Description:

Black and white bee nesting on the ground.

Habitat:

Raspberry garden next to an apple orchard within a temperate rain forest.

Notes:

These bees just set up housekeeping at the base of a raspberry plant in the last couple of days. They seem to be building a paper nest on the ground, but have an entrance to the underground. It seems similar to a bald-faced hornet, but has more stripes and less black on its abdomen and the face has more white than the pictures I see of bald faced hornets.

Species ID Suggestions

Blackjacket (workers)

Vespula consobrina

Comments (4)

Thank you so much BugEric! That ID seems to fit it to a T. I'd kept quite a distance from them due to the reputation of the bald-faced hornet, but it's true these guys seem to have borrowed their rep without having the actual buzz behind it (so to speak); they didn't come after me. I can kind of see why they're not real common: The blue jays tore up their nest (or at least that's what it looked like--it didn't last real long, certainly long before winter).
Nice find, not that common a wasp!
Pretty much everywhere west of the Cascade Mountains has water! We have tons of state and national parks. Are you looking for rivers, lakes or ocean? Birds or aquatic life? The Columbia River gorge is beautiful with its waterfalls, though the Dalles area is pretty hot right now with a raging forest fire. The North Umpqua River is one of my favorite spots, leading up to Crater Lake National Park. Up the Lower Rogue River has lots of bear, eagles, etc. as well as a nice run of salmon if you hit it right.
Hi Shebe,if we are interested in travelling to Oregon,can you recommend some natural sites with water to visit?non commercial.
Photographed
PublishedAugust 7, 2014

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