I like to think of one of our presidential sages when i wonder what animals we choose not to eradicate “I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.”
Look at this gourmand paper wasp.
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Isn’t paper wasps same as the yellow jackets?
@IL847 No they look similar but are very different insects. For me yellow jackets are hornets who nest in the ground and are much more aggressive, i wish they would change the name yellow jacket as most wasps are black and yellow. I have a paper wasp nest in my porch and i can put my hand up to it and they do nothing but stare out at you. They are very beneficial and you should eradicate the wasps that sting you in my opinion as most will not. I have only gotten stung when i had a yellow jacket nest right near my yard.
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I’ve gotten stung more hiking in the woods than around the yard. the buggers like to nest under old stumps. step on the exposed roots and its like setting off a alarm. sadly its not the guy in the lead but the ones behind him that get it!
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In the Cornell blog I posted in Post # 16 above, if you read further down beyond the Asian Giant hornets, it describes behaviors of paper wasps, yellow jackets, baldfaced hornets, etc.
The article says some of these insects are killed unnecessarily. Maybe, they look similar so people assume they should be killed.
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Right, you’re right. They are different
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Most yellowjackets here nest in the ground, but not all. I assume it’s a different species of them that build enclosed nests above ground, not sure.
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Since they are up in a tree and there nest is paper and the butt shape/size i would call those paper wasps. Really in my book if you can get near the nest without getting stung they are a paper wasp. Like moose was saying usually you get near a nest without knowing. My understanding is the german yellow jackets build nests above ground but those are not the german kind. However there are so many wasps we really have not identified all of them. For me its the level of aggression that makes hornets and wasps easily distinguishable.
Are those ones aggressive to you?
Yellow jackets and bold faced hornets are both pests to fruit growers here. They destroy figs and will exploit breaks in the skins of other fruit and often drill holes into them if there’s no easier entry. They destroy blueberries later in the season.
Even when there’s plenty of unspoiled fruit they often swarm a tree and threaten those attempting to harvest fruit, even if they don’t sting them, which for many of my clients, greatly reduces the enjoyment of harvesting fruit.
Massive trapping and destroying nests is the solution for me. I cannot coexist with them when they are excessively present. It is August and Sept when they tend to become unbearable.
I use Victor reuseable traps baited with 50% concentrated apple juice and water. A splash of detergent and citric acid renders the bait much longer lasting and the ultimate wasp stew easier to clean up when rebaiting or putting away the traps for the season.
I use up to 3 traps per tree and it can take a couple of weeks to get the wasps under control, especially if you wait to long to get started.
Tomorrow I will begin setting up traps for clients. I hope cheap Chinese apple juice concentrate is available.
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This is what I have observed in my backyard too. Bald faced hornets pick the best ripe peaches and start to break the skin. The rest of them smell the fruit and come.
European hornets, V.crabro, destroy any fruits here that ripen much later than mid-August. Late season ripening apples, like ArkBlack, Goldrush, etc., never have a chance.
Guess they’ll go hungry this year, 'cause there are absolutely NO apples/pears, thanks to this spring’s freezes.
I made s simple hornets trap with a water bottle. Mixed a solution of sugar water, a drop of dish detergent , and a little bit of vinegar (and throw in the fruits were half eaten). Without knowing if the formula works or not. I just hang the bottle on the tree. Guess what I found inside and dead, the bald faced hornets!
This bald faced Hornets are pest in my yard. They destroyed the best fruits on the tree. I will make more traps to get rid of them along with the yellow jackets
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I have had trouble with the European hornets eating fruit some years,
And don’t like nests of any of the above where I may get stung.
Most are too mean for their own good.!
But , I think many ( paper wasps )are good predators of other pests, and diserve some respect for that.
From Wikipedia ,paper wasps…
( " Most wasps are beneficial in their natural habitat, and are critically important in natural biocontrol.[3] Paper wasps feed on nectar and other insects, including caterpillars, flies, and beetle larvae. Because they are a known pollinator and feed on known garden pests, paper wasps are often considered to be beneficial by gardeners.[8] " )
I have a neighbor, fruit grower, that makes nest sites for paper wasp , by cutting the bottom out of cans , and hangs them near the orchard, says they eat a lot of caterpillars.
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You are right. The paper wasps are more beneficial. I am going to let them coexist in my yard. I am trapping yellow jackets and baldfaced Hornets. So far , I have only trapped few bald faced Hornets and have not seen yellow jackets trapped yet. I might need to cook up a new formula tailored to yellow jackets.
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We also keep bees, and dislike yellowjackets passionately. Got called to remove and relocate honeybees several times to find their nasty little enemies instead. Yes they sting…REPEATEDLY not like a honeybee that loses its stinger, and yes they bite too! I’ve watched the dirty little beggers chew on my beesuit, and have been stung.
The other day our guys were removing ponderosa pines in the forrest too close to a nest and our son running a chain saw got stung on the forarm. He yelled “YELLOW JACKETS” and the rest of our crew scattered like he yelled “Grenade!” Lol. He left the saw there running and it drew the evil things attention. When they went back they found a bunch had crawled into the fan and got the schnitzel.
If they are just foraging they rarely sting. I used to like watching them (at least i tjink it was them) hauling off flies while I milked goats, but they like meat and are pests with home slaughter folks like us.
Kill kill and do not spare or pity. Enough will survive to continue their evil kind.
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Interesting observation… Many wasps make a paper-like substance for nest building. Others make mud to house eggs in. So the “paper wasps” name for any of the first type, ie hornets, yellowjackets, and what I’ve always known as paper wasps. Hmm…
Wikipedia article on paper wasps:
Paper wasps are vespid wasps that gather fibers from dead wood and plant stems, which they mix with saliva, and use to construct water-resistant nests made of gray or brown papery material. Some types of paper wasps are also sometimes called umbrella wasps , due to the distinctive design of their nests.
But goes on to also say:
The name “paper wasps” typically refers to members of the vespid subfamily Polistinae, though it often colloquially includes members of the subfamilies Vespinae (hornets and yellowjackets) and Stenogastrinae, which also make nests out of paper. Twenty-two species of Polistes paper wasps have been identified in North America and approximately 300 species have been identified worldwide.
So including them in the term “paper wasps”, or not, either one is correct seems like.
Oh and heh… That “paper” burns very well. Not if attached to your house of course! But in a bush or hanging from a tree limb, light 'em up. Long piece of bamboo with some burning newspaper on the end. Very effective…
I’ve also dispatched a fair number of 'em with 20GA. Satisfying to see a hornet’s nest just “disappear” 
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I used to think wasps and hornets of various kinds were a pest of apples. What I think is happening is that birds or going at the ripening apples and then the wasps are scavenging the half-eaten fruit.
I am having some degree of success, so far, with bird distractors (How do you distract a bird? Hey bird, over there, look, worm!) I use a combination of strips of shiny Mylar hung on the tree. I also use hang on strings old computer CD-ROM disks – everything these days is either a download or we use flash drives, so CD-ROM disks are otherwise e-waste. I am told that the resulting glints off those items hanging in the wind scare birds.
The other thing I do goes back to the older generation who would drape fabric “snakes” on the branches. The other suggestion is to move these around so the birds do not catch wise that those snakes aren’t moving at all. Crows are pretty smart in this respect and the same may be true for blue jays, which I am told, are related to crows.
The big hazard for me is getting stung, either when picking fruit and especially when picking up and discarding wind falls that may be half rotten. I remove the wind falls as an orchard hygiene measure. I am sensitive to their stings, and it puts a crimp in getting picking done.
My after-the-fact measure is to 1) wash the sting site with soap and water to see if I can get any of the venom off, 2) carry around a frozen water bottle to ice down the injury to tamp down swelling, 3) take some Chlor-Trimiton anti-histamine hay-fever pills. I find it works just as well as Benadryl. For my hay fever I take it before going to bed because it is the old-style anti-histamine that can make you quite sleepy, but after the agitation of a wasp sting, I don’t notice any sleepiness.
A before-the-fact measure is that my local safety-equipment supply place has these heavy-duty orange-colored disposable nitrile gloves that are thicker than the usual disposable glove. I have to see if I can get more given the virus emergency depleting supplies of such things.
Well,baiting on bald faced wasps are missing accomplished. They are no longer major pest digging into my fruits. I have three of these hanging on branches
However new pest appears ,this time, it’s the yellow jackets. They are eating my grapes.
Yellow jackets are as bad as squirrels. They eat a little bit of each fruits and move on to eat another ones.
Since they liked my grapes so much, I have prepared grapes (mixed with sugar water and other fermenting fruits) dinner for them. Hope they will enjoy .
Question about Red Paper Wasps…
I am noticing that there has been a population boom in my orchards.
My question is about berries. I am noticing them really working the blackberries and raspberries… seeming to be working every nook and cranny… really taking their time and enjoying whatever it is they are doing.
According to google their diet is nectar and larvae… so are they looking for larvae? or are they feasting on nectar? Are they helping my berries by eating larvae? Or are they damaging fruit?
Internet is cloudy on this… and they are aggressive so i dont really wanna mess with them when they are doing their thing.
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