Still others may build their paper nests in hollow trees, holes in the ground, or other cavities such as wall voids or hollow trees ( European hornet). Other nests may be open-celled (lack a papery covering) umbrella-shaped combs, and usually hang from eaves or ceilings of open-air structures (paper wasps). Some nests are very large, generally spherical in shape, fully covered with a papery material, and typically hang from tree branches ( baldfaced hornets, aerial yellowjackets). Most feed their young a diet of living insects, chewed first by adult workers before being fed to larvae. Social wasps make a new paper nest each year in which they produce large colonies of offspring.
Solitary wasps include cicada killer wasps, potter wasps, digger and sand wasps, and mud daubers. Social wasps include yellowjackets (sometimes incorrectly referred to as “ground bees” from the habit some species have of nesting underground), paper wasps, bald-faced hornet (actually a type of native yellowjacket), and European hornet. Solitary wasps, on the other hand, are non-aggressive and do not sting in defense, but only to capture prey you’d have to handle or sit on one to get stung.Īs effective predators of many insect pests, wasps are considered beneficial, but a social wasp nest in the wrong place may need to be removed. Some are frightening enough to strike terror into our hearts, but these fearsome predators work diligently to control garden pests.Īlthough all social wasps will defend their nest with a painful sting if disturbed, with a little bit of care on our part ( do NOT disturb the nest!) we can avoid raising their ire while benefitting from their appetite for other insects. Predatory wasps may be social (many individuals living in a nest with a queen) or solitary (each female produces and rears her own young).
0 kommentar(er)
