Non-native Vespula germanica yellowjackets dominate urban-to-rural gradient

Social insects are highly successful invaders of novel habitats and, of these, wasps and yellowjackets are quite successful worldwide. Vespula germanica (German yellowjackets) have become a pernicious cosmopolitan problem – yet the degree of their urban association and domination remains unclear. We investigated the invasion and behavior of V. germanica in Western New York along a rural-urban gradient to understand their conspecific dominance and their foraging behavior around human activities. We placed yellowjacket baits in urban, suburban and rural sites through the summer season to assess their dominance, and we conducted behavior trials at picnic tables to observe their responses to human activity. Given that the invasive ecotype prefers to nest in human structures, we predicted we would find the greater V. germanica dominance near structures and in urban areas. Moreover, given that they learn to associate food with cues, we predicted that they would associate human presence/activi..., The study area fell within the Western New York (U.S.) geographic area, bounded on the northern and eastern edges by Lakes Ontario and Erie, the western edge by Rochester, NY and the southern edge by the Alleghany Plateau. The study area included urban (the greater metropolitan areas of Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Rochester) suburban and rural habitats and encompassed about 12,000 km2. Within that area, we acquired permission from municipal and private entities, and from that pool randomly we selected sites that were urban (dominated by impermeable surfaces; no single-family housing), suburban (permeable surfaces such as lawns and trees; dominated by single-family housing) and rural (dominated by permeable surfaces such as agricultural fields and forests; sporadic single-family housing). Every two weeks for 20 weeks (June-November 2022) we sampled 9 sites (3 of each: urban, suburban and rural). We captured no insects during the first baiting (June 13), so we resampled the same sites for..., , # Data from: Non-native Vespula germanica yellowjackets dominate urban-to-rural gradient

\#Gradient data Date = date traps placed Julian = Julian date traps
placed Lat = Latitude Lon = Longitude Dist.home = distance from the trap
to the nearest human structure Land.use = land use category for location
where trap placed (Rural, Suburban, Urban) V.germanica, V. maculifera,
V.flavipolus = Abundance of each Vespula species in trap D.arenaria =
abundance of Dolichovespula arenaria in trap

\#Behavior data Date = date traps placed Julian = Julian date traps
placed Week = treatment week Replicate = nearest campus building Table =
table where trap placed Treatment = Control or Observed V.germanica =
abundance of V. germanica Other = other wasps in traps

NA = missing data