Delaware Valley Orienteering Association

Hi everyone,

I'm posting this so everyone is aware for upcoming events:

I received a general email this morning from a local hiking club I'm a member of sent by the president to all members warning people about bees (likely yellow jackets) on upcoming hikes. The email warns people of this due to multiple recent sting occurrences on club-organized hikes, and also states that bees have been more active this year/season. Those of you who were at this past weekend's Haverford Reserve event likely know I had to make a last-minute change to one of the courses due to not being able to place a control due to a yellow jacket hive essentially right at the control site resulting in me getting stung a few times when trying to place the control. In addition, a few weekends before, I was at French Creep with a hiking group and we hiked over a yellow jacket nest right on the trail resulting in a couple people getting stung several times. So it seems it's not just a one-off incidence from this past weekend with my control setting!

Kathy Moss told me at Haverford that the yellow jackets are more irritable this season because of low amounts of their food (or maybe the food availability is just because it's getting late in the season for bees). Maybe something with the heat and weather recently plays into that? I don't know much about yellow jackets so I'm not sure...