Wasp / Yellowjack attacking Spotted Lanternfly

My wife hates Yellowjackets, they’re what us Brits call wasps. She has bad memories as a kid being bothered by them on summer holidays. There was a debate a few years ago in the UK about what they were good for. A quick search on the web and the word yellowjacket returns mostly extermination services. Clearly the good people who use this website know they’re beneficial and there’s even a BB here which explains how to relocate a nest.

Today I was hunting spotted lanternfly which have infested my neighbours vine and a witnessed a very determined wasp / yellowjacket attacking a significantly larger lanternfly. I don’t know when the fight started, but I watched it for a good ten minutes. It appeared as the though the lanternfly was injured - it didn’t fly or jump and one wing was at a strange angle. It eventually tumbled of into the undergrowth, so I’m guessing it lost even though it was at least ten times bigger. It would be great if the local wasps / yellowjackets get a taste for lanternfly. It hasn’t solved my wifes spheksophobia but she’s now witnessed their benefits.

If you’ve got fruit trees or vines and you’re in PA, NY, NJ area then look after your wasps!

those are yellowjackets to many of us in the states too!

Thanks Greg - I got that all the wrong way round! I've made an edit so should be clearer.

Here are a couple of interesting threads about wasps for pest control:

https://permies.com/t/35472/Wasps-pest-control

https://permies.com/t/86804/Wasps-Spiders

edward, to be clear, we generally say yellowjackets are a kind of wasp. we tend to call paper wasps and mud daubers and ichneumons and pompilids, etc etc, wasps, too. kind of a large grouping. things like bald-faced hornets and the cicada-killers, while actually closer-related phylogenetically to yellowjackets (family Vespidae), we call hornets…but we hopefully know that they’re wasps too…

and when i say ‘we’, i’m not particularly sure who i’m talking about. i’m something of a taxonomy geek who nearly went to grad school for entomology taxonomy. i know i’m not speaking for everyone, since there are 100+ species of ants in my area (really, probably over 200), and i know of a fair number of folks who would say ‘there’s red ants and black ants, that’s all)…

…aaaaanyway, not trying to derail your thread. that a frequently hated bug may a bit of a natural control for spotted lanternfly is awesome.

Thank you Greg! I really appreciate your explanation. I’ve noticed there’s a big difference between British English and American English, which has lead to some embarrassment and giggles from my kids. In the UK, unless you’re an entomologist, there are simply wasps (Vespula vulgaris) and hornets, (Vespa Crabro ) just the two species. I’m certainly much more aware of mud wasps and bald-faced hornets and other buzzy things here.