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Yellow Jackets Are Descending On Colorado

CASTLE ROCK, Colo. (CBS4) - Ambulances arrived on campus to treat more than a dozen preschoolers and teachers at Rock Ridge Elementary School in Castle Rock on Thursday after they were stung by either bees or yellow jackets.

It's not hard to find a buzzing bush this time of year but experts say it is difficult to determine if they're bees or yellow jackets.

Jaron Walz is an exterminator who is getting inundated with calls about yellow jacket nests throughout the metro area.

"This time of year they're just interested in the sap, so they're eating the sugar and carrying it back to the nest to share with the others," Walz said.

Parents say they're on constant patrol trying to keep the buzzing insects away from their children.

"I've just been a little worried this year that they're going to get stung and we'll have to go rushing to the hospital," a father of a young girl said.

"I've had yellow jackets chase me as recently as yesterday just for standing in the yard where they have nests," Walz said.

Until the first freeze the threat of buzzing will continue.

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