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