At this time of year, yellow jackets take advantage of the plethora of fermented fruit that lies underneath fruit trees. Because the queen stops producing eggs in the fall, workers have time on their hands, as they have fewer larvae to collect food (chewed-up insects) for. Their life – but not the queen’s – is about to come to an end, and they go out in style. If you observe these members of the Vespidae family acting erratically in autumn, it may well be because they are drunk on hard cider.