Article: YELLOW JACKETS SEEING RED WITH THE ONCOMING COLD, THE WASPS' EFFORTS TO EAT AND SURVIVE TAKE A FRENZIED TURN TOWARD ANYTHING AND ANYONE.(LIFE & LEISURE)

Byline: DARRYL CAMPAGNA Staff writer

The yellow jackets are getting desperate.

The striped wasps are down to their final days only the queen of the brood will survive the winter by hibernating to lay next spring's brood of eggs. For the rest, food is getting scarce, both the flower nectar that some species feed on and the cookout leftovers that draw the Vespula germanica to the picnic table.

With queens gone, the social order of the colonies is disintegrating. And the brisk mornings make it tough for cold-blooded insects to get up and get going.

So in this stretch of mid-autumn weather, when humans gather outdoors for apple-picking, ...

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