Tiny, miniature 1/2 size yellow jackets????

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

This year, first time I have laid my eyes upon these tiny yellow jackets.  They are half the size of my Italian honey bees.  I see them under my hives scavenging for dead bee parts.  They are to tiny to mess with the honey bees.  There is a ground nest under my front steps, they are all tiny little critters, a tad bit bigger than a common house fly.  To the contrary, I have not seen in 2018 a typical size yellow jacket, ya know, the ones that try to invade my bee hives, fight with the honey bees and ends up with dead yellow jackets in front of the bee hive.

I have seen yellow jackets all my life from Texas to Montana and all appear similar in size: bad tempered, ground nesting eating fruits to meats.  But these little, tiny yellow jackets, half the size of a honey bee are new to me.  Are these common, can a beek shed some light on these little wasp for me???  I would appreciate your input.  The area is Arkansas, central south US.
Blessings

[BeeMaster2]

I have never seen them.
I have mentioned this before, here our paper wasps have switched from being a black species to a red and yellow. The black ones were very aggressive, they would sting you for just walking under their hives. The red and yellow wasps are rather docile. I removed 4 nests from my dock this morning with a hose and not one single sting.
Jim

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Red and yellow wasp????? I have never seen one, but from your words it sounds like a good trade.  That is better to have the docile red/yellow Wasp compared to the aggressive black wasp or red wasp which I am very familiar with.

[Dallasbeek]

With more than 75,000 species of wasps identified in the world, no wonder.  I only know a couple of speciest on sight, but not by names or anything.  I just know that unlike honeybees, they sting multiple times.

[Skeggley]

Hiya Van perhaps this site may help you identify.
https://www.insectidentification.org/insects-by-type-and-region.asp?thisState=arkansas&thisType=Bee,%20Ant,%20Wasp%20and%20Similar

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Skeg thank you.  Good site, I bookmarked the site fir future reference.  Thanks again for taking your time to post the link.
Blessings

[Michael Bush]

One of the varieties of yellow jackets around here are those small ones.  Our yellow and black paper wasps weren't that aggressive but they have now been replaced by brown and black ones.  The brown and black ones seem to be much more aggressive.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Thanks M Bush, you have seen these little critters.  An acquaintance told me the mini yellow jackets pack a wallop with a sting, just like the normal size yellow jackets.  The minis are a bit larger than a house fly.

While we are on the subject of wasp and hornets: last year I had European Hornets that feed on my honey bees.  This is a huge wasp, red chest, black and yellow abdomen. My honeybees were helpless against such a giant.  The European wasp visited my hives every morning and evening picking off honeybees.  These wasp build the paper hanging football shape nest, like the bald faced Hornet.

Last winter was colder than normal, I have not seen any European wasp this year, 2018, in Arkansas.

[herbhome]

Van. I had a terrible summer last year with Europeans and yellow jackets. So far this year I haven't seen either. Last year I lined out and destroyed a massive European hornet nest and four yellow jacket nests. Still have the occasional baldfaced hornet and red wasps still.

I haven't noticed the little fellows you mentioned but I'll be looking for them now.

[TheBeeMan]

You can eliminate the yellow jackets using this technique: https://forum.hivebuddy.com/t/home-made-wasp-trap/78/2

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[The15thMember]

I used to see European hornets occasionally at my old house, but thankfully none here.  They are quite an impressive looking insect.  My girls have been dealing with bald-faced hornets lately though.  I actually walked up to the hives one evening and found them balling one!  I waited and watched for a while and sure enough, as they started to disperse, there it was on the ground, dead as a doornail.  It was the first time I'd seen that behavior and it was awesome to watch! 

[Ben Framed]

Van , I have lived in North Mississippi all my life. The smaller ones are what we in this area,
Have always refered to as yellow jackets.  The larger ones (wasp size) we  refer to as striped wasp.  Look on the Remington 22 amo  box refered to as "yellow jackets" and you should see a picture of these small yellow jackets. But let me tell you, there sting is something deceiving as compaired to there size.  I am presuming you might have found this out ?    Phillip
PS  Don't make the mistake of running over a nest wile cutting grass!!!

[Michael Bush]

>An acquaintance told me the mini yellow jackets pack a wallop with a sting, just like the normal size yellow jackets.

Not nearly as bad as the last paper wasp sting I got from those brown and black ones.

> The minis are a bit larger than a house fly.

Yes.

[Barry]

When yellow jackets and bald faced hornets start their colonies the initial workers are quite small because developmental time remains same even if nutritional values are stunted because queen is a one bug band doing it all . These smaller workers are fast not terribly aggressive as not a lot to defend nor a lot of workers to respond. Not saying they won't sting.   They certainly will. As more and more workers make the scene the work load better distributed  large better fed makes for larger workers

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T377A using Tapatalk