Photo: Paper Wasp, Judy Gallagher
Judy Gallagher is an ASNV board member a a regular surveyor of local wildlife who also captures photos of what she sees, in particular the less common species. Here are some observations from her most recent survey.
If you've ever been stung by a social wasp, you probably wonder why they should be allowed to exist. One subfamily of social wasps, the Paper Wasps, are brilliant architects. They make small nests with open combs consisting of cells for brood rearing. Our local Paper Wasp species aren't as aggressive as Yellowjackets. I was about 2 feet from the nest when I took this picture and was not stung or chased away by the wasps, but you should still use caution if you approach a nest.
Paper Wasps, Judy Gallagher
To make these intricate structures, female wasps scrape woody material from plants or in this case, the fence around Meadowood's Pollinator Garden. The wasps chew the woody material, mixing it with saliva. This mixture is used to build a series of hexagonal cells, each of which will contain a wasp larva. Paper Wasp mothers feed garden pests such as flies, beetle larvae, and caterpillars to their young. Unless they make their nest in a highly trafficked area, leave these beauties and their nests alone so that they can do their beneficial pest control work.
Paper wasp scraping wood from a fence for nest-making, Judy Gallagher
Here's another species of Paper Wasp, drinking nectar from a Partridge Pea's extrafloral nectary – the little reddish circle by the wasp's left antennae and left front leg. Extrafloral nectaries are plant glands that secrete nectar, but they aren't in flowers and therefore aren't involved in pollination. Many plants have extrafloral nectaries, and there are several theories of why they provide an advantage to a plant. One theory is that predatory insects such as wasps drink the nectar and provide an alternative service to the plant by eating any plant-eating insects in the vicinity or by feeding the insects to their young.
Polistes species with Partridge Pea, Judy Gallagher
View all of Judy’s Observations from Meadowood articles here.