SHAUN STANLEY/Durango Herald When Debi Patterson stepped out her
back door to take in drying clothes the other day, she saw what
looked like bees and glanced upward. “I almost fainted,”
Patterson said Wednesday. “There was this huge nest.” It turned
out to be a colony of western yellow jackets. Deborah Kendall
from the biology department at Fort Lewis College said insects
of the vespidae family, which includes yellow jackets, are found
in abundance in La Plata County. “We have tons of them, all
kinds of species,” said Kendall, who has a dual degree in
zoology and entomology. “It’s totally natural to find them
here.” Kendall said the nest will be abandoned come winter. All
inhabitants will die except a fertilized queen that will find a
protected place. In the spring, the queen will emerge and build
a new nest, Kendall said. She’ll chew woody material, which,
mixed with starch in her saliva, will create the “paper” for
construction. The queen will stock the nest with paralyzed
caterpillars or other insects and