Comments on: European Paper Wasp

By: David Brady

David Brady — Tue, 13 May 2008 03:46:20 +0000

Alan: EPW’s will forage a bit, but yellowjackets are much more known for that behavior. (Yellowjackets are technically hornets, which are wildly different critters that paper wasps.)

tceisele: The wasps out here have been flying for about 4 weeks, so it’s possible that we’ve got some drones out now. This could well be a queen, but I really don’t know.

By: Alan

Alan — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:42:31 +0000

Nice picture! Are these the same bugs that seem to love human foods as well, and plague picnics in the summer-time? Or are those yellow-jackets?

By: JFargo

JFargo — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:08:05 +0000

Though now, thinking about it, I realize the kids were probably thinking of Herman Munster.

By: JFargo

JFargo — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:07:24 +0000

I hate those things.

Not afraid of them, and not disgusted by them or anything. I don’t smoosh them when I see them, and usually just move them out of my house via the cup-and-paper method, but I hate them.

Could be because I was once stung by two at the same time, almost exactly opposite one another on either side of my neck as a child.

That was the summer I earned the nickname “Frankenstein.”

By: tceisele

tceisele — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:39:09 +0000

Ooo, nice picture of the papermaking process! Incidentally, unless it has been a *lot* warmer where you are than it is here up by Lake Superior, there hasn’t been enough time for a queen to have raised up some new worker brood yet. If they are like honeybees, it takes at least 21 warmish days to go from an egg to a new-emerged wasp, and so far we’ve had about 10 days. I should really keep an eye on the wasp nests being built in my father-in-law’s hunting blind, and time them from egg to emergence to get a better estimate.

Around here, any wasp or bumblebee that we are seeing flying around before about June is pretty certain to be an overwintered queen looking to start a new nest.