Socially, unsocial - the European Paper Wasp
The wasps that we regard as highly unsocial insects due to the unpredictable aggressiveness that travels with them, are in fact, classed as a social species of insects. This is more to do with the fact that form large social colonies rather than live in isolation. For me there’s definitely nothing at all nice or, social about them.
Many of us really don’t like wasps very much and its easy to see why; just brush up against a nest where there’s a wasp nest and watch the reaction, not good. Well, the bad news is that there’s more of them this year and I don’t just mean there’s more in numbers but more in species.
Because the European Paper Wasp is now resident in Berkshire: I had my first callout to them in Wokingham a few weeks ago. The paper wasp has settled in the UK, and it was first sighted in Warwickshire in 2009, there have been reports of it across the Southeast, but we now know that it’s here.
The European Paper Wasp in the UK
The name “European paper Wasp” actually refers to four separate species of paper wasp (yes it gets worse) and the one which we are seeing here is Polistes dominula and probably the most common of all the paper wasps.
These are the wasps that you’ll encounter on holiday if you travel to the Mediterranean, they come from North Africa and Southern Europe and have slowly spread north and west, even to the USA over several years.
The occasional blast of superhot air that whisks up over us from time to time, may also have some effect on their distribution.
Either way, it seems like the Asian hornet that they can now overwinter on the mainland of England and so we’ll see more and more of these social wasps over the next few years.
How can you tell if it’s a paper wasp?
Like all the wasps they typically have the black and yellow warning markings, and you can tell these wasps from other types easily by their tiny waist and long bright orange antenna. They have long spindly legs and wings that are much thinner than the more common species. The legs, wings and antenna all give these wasps a much slimmer look than the other type of wasps, but they still pack a punch when it comes to stinging.
Paper wasps live in relatively small colonies of about 40 strong and build themselves a slightly different style of nest, where other wasps build a thick wood pulp sheath around the honeycomb to give the larvae inside some protection, paper wasps don’t, they just build the comb. These nests will be attached to branches and on over hanging structures on houses which means for gardeners, they may be hard to spot.
The biggest difference between these wasps and the other types is in the colony hierarchy; other social wasps have a solitary Queen wasp: she started the colony and directly gave birth to every female worker within. The colonies fate is directly linked to hers, for if she dies so will the colony, not so with the paper wasps.
They don’t have a single Queen wasp, instead, our paper wasps have a number of “foundresses” or, to put it another way, several Queen wasps. One or more foundresses will start the colony off, working together to build the nest and the dominant Queen is selected as the one that lays the highest number of eggs.
When this is settled, the ‘losing’ foundresses all become subservient to the new Queen, but If anything happens to her and she dies, then one of these females is ready and quickly becomes the new dominant Queen, and so the colonies existence is guaranteed. This little quirk doesn’t happen in the other wasp species, if or when the Queen dies, then that colony will diminish and die off completely.
Clever stuff! However, they have another ace card to play and these wasps, unlike the other species that we bump into in our houses and gardens, are happy to return and occupy an old nest. All of the other species start fresh in the spring and build a new nest each year, but old paper wasp nests have been recorded as being in use for several years.
Maybe the absence of the sheath means that there are no predators like the wax moth lurking in some corner of the nest and so by not having to build a new nest, the paper wasp gets a jump start on the ither types as they can direct their energy to finding food.
Like all wasps, the European Paper Wasp carries a sack of venom and the sting from this wasp is going to hurt just as much, I wear PPE when dealing with wasp nests and I have a range of powerful insecticides which are not on sale to the public which means that I can get a quicker ‘knock down’ that someone who has bought over the counter chemicals.
With a high risk of getting stung and possibly receiving multiple stings if you’re unlucky and things go wrong, tackling a wasp nest should always be left to experienced professionals. Why risk a DIY treatment?
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