What are Wasps?
Wasps are a family of insects, specifically called Vespidae. Wasps are predatory, hunting and controlling the population of many insects and bugs. They are also important pollinators, and certain plants and trees rely solely on them to pollinate their flowers!
There are many different types of Wasp groups including Hornets, Yellow Jackets, Polistes, Mud Daubers, Cicada Killers, and more.
In the US, the three social species groups of wasps are Hornets (Vespa), Yellow Jackets (Vespula and Dolichovespula), and Open Comb Wasps (Polistes). All three of these wasp groups fall into the category of “Paper Wasp”. These Paper wasps will chew on decaying wood material (wood that is grey and weathered), mix it with their saliva, and mold this chewed wood paste into their own recycled paper! They will build their entire nest out of this paper material!
Click here for general information for the curious and fearful.
Yellow Jackets
The term “Yellow Jacket” is a layman’s term for the social wasp groups called “Vespula” and “Dolichovespula”. There are over 120 different known Yellow Jacket species worldwide. In the United States, there are about fifteen. Most Yellow jackets are yellow and black, but not all of them are. An example of a yellow jacket that isn’t yellow is Dolichovespula maculata, the Bald-Faced Hornet. As you may have guessed, the Bald-Faced Hornet isn’t a Hornet at all, it’s a yellow jacket!
There are three different groups of yellow jackets, separated by their usual nesting behaviors:
1 – Aerial nest building yellow jackets build conical nests hanging from tree branches and buildings
2 – Cavity nest building yellow jackets build large nests inside of closed cavities like hollow tree trunks, house wall voids, attics, etc.
3 – Subterranean nest building yellow jackets build nests underground by digging out cavities.
Yellow Jackets build their nests starting with layered comb structures, then encase the comb layers with many layers of paper sheets called envelope.
Meet these species over at the Hornet King channel on Youtube!
Vespula squamosa (Southern yellow jacket)
Bald-Faced Hornet (Dolichovespula maculata)
Vespula maculifrons (Eastern yellow jacket)
Vespula germanica-anthic (German yellow jacket)
Hornets
There is only one Hornet species established in the United States: Vespa crabro (European Hornet). European Hornets make their nests starting with large layered comb structures, then encase them with one sheet of envelope. Hornets are larger and more robust than most other wasp species, and their colonies of hundreds of 2-inch-long wasps can be mighty intimidating!
Meet Vespa Crabro with the Hornet King!
Open Comb Wasps
Commonly known as a “paper wasp,” Polistes have legs that dangle while they fly. They build smaller, open-comb nests with no paper envelope surrounding their comb. You will often find Polistes nests handing in well sheltered, and sometimes enclosed spaces. There are many Polistes species, ex: Polistes metricus, Polistes exclamans, Polistes dominula, etc.
