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LinkedInPosts Tagged: European paper wasps
Wasps: Fascinating Insects But Often Demonized
If you hate wasps, and brush them off as just "uninvited guests at my picnic," take another look. For one, they're pollinators. Two, they're great predators, contributing to the biocontrol of such lepidopteran pests as cabbageworms (larva of cabbage white butterflies). Three,...
A honey bee and a Western yellowjacket meet on a rose at a UC Davis bee garden. Both are pollinators. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A foraging European paper wasp, Polistes dominula. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The antennae of the European paper wasp are orange. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The antennae of the Western yellowjacket, Vespula pensylvanica, are black. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Ever Seen a Wasp Colony in a Frog's Mouth?
In real life, frogs eat flies, mosquitoes, bees, wasps and other insects. But have you ever seen a frog's mouth filled with an entire European wasp colony? No? Check this out! On Aug. 8, sharp-eyed Adrienne R. Shapiro of Davis spotted a colony of European paper...
Adrienne R. Shapiro of Davis captured this image of a nesting European paper wasps in the mouth of a garden frog statue in a Davis neighborhood. (Photo courtesy of Adrienne R. Shapiro)
A European paper wasp nest in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A European paper wasp peeks over a yellow rose in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
European paper wasps exiting a nest in a recycling bin at the University of California, Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A yellowjacket drinking water on a hot day. Its black antennae distinguish it from the orange-tipped antennae of the European paper wasp. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
These European Paper Wasps Didn't Get the Memo
They didn't get the memo. A sign on a recycling bin near the Mann Laboratory at the University of California, Davis, clearly reads "Bottles and Cans Only." It says nothing about wasps. But there they were: European paper wasps (Polistes dominula) building a nest yesterday beneath the overhanging...
A sign on a UC Davis recycling bin clearly says "Bottles and Cans Only." It says nothing about wasps. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of the European paper wasps building their nest beneath the overhanging lid of a recycling bin. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
European paper wasps even built a nest in a donation box in the Reiman Gardens, Iowa State University. "These ladies had expensive taste," quipped associate professor Amy Toth, who reseachers European paper wasps. (Photo by Amy Merritt, Reiman Gardens)
Why Influx of Caterpillars Linked to Hawks
"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe."--John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra Muir said it well. Muir (1938-1914), the naturalist and conservationist known as "The Father of Our National Parks," was the driving force behind the...
Three's company! Three juvenile Cooper's hawks, as identified by Andrew Engilis, Jr. curator of the UC Davis Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology,cooling off in an urban birdbath in Vacaville. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Gulf Fritillary gets ready to lay an egg. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Gulf Fritillary caterpillars defoliating the passionflower vine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Invasive paper wasp responsible for increasing yellow jacket complaints
"The European paper wasp, which is about the same size (as the yellow jacket) but more slender, has built up to enormous numbers in some communities," said Lynn Kimsey, professor in the Department of Entomology at UC Davis. "They have been making their way out of the Sacramento area for the past 20 years."
Kimsey said the wasps have moved outward from Sacramento along river beds and water ways into the Sierra Nevada and along the delta toward San Francisco. In August, 345 wasp nests were removed in South Lake Tahoe.
European paper wasps dine on caterpillars, aphids and honeybees, but switch to mostly carbohydrates in the late summer for energy, said Andrew Sutherland, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in the Bay Area.
Vernard Lewis, UCCE specialist in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley, also contributed to the story.
"Where I normally eat my lunch is one of the biggest yellow jacket nests I've seen in years," Lewis said. "It's not just here. I'm getting reports from the Berkeley campus and from Richmond, Antioch and Rodeo. Something is up. It's not just yellow jackets. It's other pests, too, like cockroaches. It's the most I've seen in at least 10 or 15 years."
Fimrite added a link in his article to the UC Statewide IPM Program Pest Note on Yellowjackets and other social wasps.
Yellow jackets, like the one above, are often confused with European paper wasps. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
