Paper Wasps
Roger has an amazing knack for finding bugs and other living things. We had a meeting in a conference room at school and he found a black widow in the corner. He regularly finds the tiniest praying mantises I have ever seen and his pill bug collection is gigantic.
Today, he insisted on showing me a wasp nest he had found. It is in that photo. Right in the middle, in fact. Not sure how he found it in the first place…
Of course, I grabbed the 100mm macro lens and snapped a few photos. It is a common misconception that wasps (and bees) are inherently mean. They really aren’t. Quite sociable, really, given that I was shoving a massive (by their standards) piece of glass in their faces while moving the bush a bit here and there.
This second picture is the first shot upon approach to the nest. The wasps are in a fairly neutral posture. Hanging out on the nest, relatively relaxed.
The end of this post has some more specific information on their societal habits and species.
Approaching a bit more closely and moving the bush around a bit more, the wasps are starting to get a bit more concerned. They can quite clearly see me — or the camera anyway — as they all shifted around such that they could see me.
Paper wasps are quite the little architects. That paper nest is entirely suspended from a single point from a branch on the rosemary bush. The nest is built as a series of hexagonal tubs radiating out from the middle.
Not all of the wasps play the same role within the nest, apparently. The one pictured to the right seemed quite content sticking its head in the crook of a branch and ignoring the entire episode.
It is also interesting to note the sometimes subtle and sometimes radical differences in the yellow/black patterns across the different individuals.
At the other end of the spectrum, there was one wasp that seemed to have assumed the role of “head sentry”.
It (he? she? I have no idea) had perched itself on the branch directly above the point at which the nest is attached to the bush. I shoved my camera in quite close and grabbed a series of closeups, of which this is the best.
The entire time the “master sentry” would follow my lens quite intently, antennas sampling whatever signals they are attuned to.
Beautiful creatures. Roger got a hearty thank you for finding and sharing…
Update: Joar commented (Thank you!) that they are all females and, like bees (which I knew — grew up w/a beehive), wasps form a society of sterile woman with males only existing long enough to perpetuate the species. The Polistes wikipedia article mentioned below has considerably more information in regards to the social structure of the nest. There will be at least one fertile queen somewhere in the nest. I wonder if the mostly black, seemingly cowering, wasp was the queen?
Wikipedia has entries on both wasps and paper wasps.
Most amusingly, there is a “Schmidt Sting Pain Index“. Assuming these wasps are generic paper wasps, there sting is described as Caustic & burning. Distinctly bitter aftertaste. Like spilling a beaker of Hydrochloric acid on a paper cut.
Daniel commented that he had his own wasp encounter yesterday. He thinks that the wasps Roger found are of the European variety (Polistes dominulus). Via Google, Daniel found a brief article with pictures that seem to match.
This particular species of wasp was introduced to the United States in the early 1980s to control pests in gardens. In particular, they eat tomato horn worms, squash bugs, and all kinds of garden nasties.
I mentioned all of this to Roger and now he is quite torn about killing the nests around our house. Yes, he is only 5 and playing with wasps is a bad idea. He knows that and has been stung. Given that, this is a risk he can choose to pursue. Learning opportunities abound in this life.
June 15th, 2006 at 1:25 am
It’s a she. Ants, bees and wasps all form societies of sterile female workers, ruled by a single queen. Males are only born during the reproduction period, and typically only live long enough to serve that single purpose.
June 15th, 2006 at 9:31 am
Wow – what an amazing set of photos. Your wasp encounter was very timely for me, since just yesterday we discovered some very similar wasps just setting up camp with several nests in the door jams and gas-tank doors of two cars. Fortunately these nests appeared to be in early stage, and there was only one wasp per nest. Since they were in cars we decided we had to remove them, which unfortunately meant killing them.
It freaked me out enough at first that I did some internet research, and I discovered that they were paper wasps pretty much like yours. However, I believe ours were “Northern Paper Wasp” while yours appear to be the European variety (Polistes dominulus). I found via google a good photo that seems to match yours.
I still think you were pretty brave to get up in their faces like that and snap the photos. Apparently paper wasps are a lot less aggressive than hornets or yellow jackets, but I think when nest proximity is in play, you risk getting a reaction from any variety!
Thanks for sharing! What a weird coincidence that wasps were very much on our minds on the same day.
June 16th, 2006 at 9:50 am
There’s no need to kill bugs the way most people do; casually and without a second thought. As you write, most of them are harmless, and fascinating.