Why do yellow-jackets eat dead snakes?

Question

I found a portion of a dead snake in the yard after a mowing, I guess, maybe it got cut up in mower blades, but we didnt notice it then...Later my dog was jumping & cowering to everything, and I checked him a bit later still, and he was very swollen on the snout & feeling low..Called a VET she said administer Benedryl & CalaDryl Lotion...He had the normal good reactions to it, so we knew it was Allergenic...felt better in morning2 :)
I went watering plants & found the source of the bites!!!!EEWWW!!! the snake, infested w/ yellow-jackets...they appeared to be eating it from the inside out , resembling a
Voodoo curse or something..very grotesque & a little frightening....Maybe they're Africanized Bee's, but appeared to be the smaller Yellow-Jackets.
NOT SURE OF WHAT CATAGORY I SHOULD POST IT UNDER....VOODOO!!?!! or SOMETHING LESS SINISTER..? IS THIS A COMMON OCCURENCE?
Health? or Mythology& Folklore? or other still?
all creeped out...LR 08/31/06 Magnolia, TX

Answer 1

Yellow jackets eat meat, among other things. Why would they treat a dead snake any differently than a hamburger in the garbage?

Answer 2

This is nothing new.If you were to put outside a pound of raw hambuger in the summer months,you would have bumblebee's,wasp's,hornets,fly's and a host of other winged insects and other crawling insects come to the rescue and have a great feast! Once when i was watching Discovery Channel,they had an episode about what happens to the human body after it dies and becomes exposed to the outside elements,and so in Knoxville Tn,on the campus of U of Tn,they have a place called the Body Farm,where people can donate their dead body to science to help forensics as well as doc's and other law enforcement to train them how the body breaks down in many outside domains(inside the trunk of a vehicle etc) and to see how animals as well as insects what they do to exposed human bodies.It was gross to a certain degree,but it was very fascinating and educating to see how many different insects and night animals came out to chew on the body as well as on the bones.Many bumblebee's,hornets and wasp's were actively feeding on this dead body,so it's only natural for those insect's to eat ANYTHING that is decaying.

Answer 3

Since you landed in the Religion and Spirituality category, I'll give the Religious take on it. It's just a part of the circle of life. It just proves that God created all creatures for a reason, no matter how small. (If I only knew the reason for fleas...)

Answer 4

The bees were treating the snake as food thats is. It is a natural occurence. Not Vodou.

Answer 5

They are practicing for the wrath.
They are getting ready to do the biting for 5 months.

I thought you knew that.