Paper wasp

How to recognise it

These are the features that identify a paper wasp. Each one is described in words so the identification works without the diagram.

1. Long, slender body with a very narrow waist, 16 to 25 mm, usually brown with yellow or reddish markings.
2. The long back legs dangle conspicuously below the body in flight — this is the easiest field separator from a yellowjacket.
3. The nest is a single open, downward-facing comb of exposed hexagonal cells, suspended by a narrow stalk, with no papery outer envelope.

What it leaves behind

• Open umbrella-shaped combs under eaves, in door frames, on porch ceilings, in grills, and inside meter boxes.
• A small number of adults resting directly on the visible comb.

Why an infestation persists

Colonies are much smaller than yellowjacket colonies — often a few dozen individuals — and paper wasps are markedly less defensive, generally stinging only when the nest is touched or approached very closely. They are useful predators of caterpillars. Nests in low-traffic locations frequently warrant no action at all.

Where it occurs

Throughout the United States.

Where to look for it

• Under eaves and porch ceilings, where the open comb hangs from a short stalk.
• Inside door and window frames, especially the top corner of an outward-opening frame.
• Barbecue grills, meter boxes, letter boxes, and any hollow section left closed for a season.
• Under garden furniture and inside upturned pots.
• Playground equipment and hollow railings.
• In early spring, look for a single founding queen on a nest the size of a coin — this is the moment when the decision is easy.

When you see it, and why

A single queen founds the nest in spring, and through April and May the nest is small enough that the decision about it is trivial. Colonies stay far smaller than yellowjacket colonies — often a few dozen individuals — and die off in winter without reusing the nest. Defensiveness rises as the colony grows but never approaches yellowjacket levels; most stings happen when someone touches the nest or reaches blindly into a space containing one.

What getting the identification wrong costs you

Told apart from a yellowjacket by the dangling back legs in flight and by the nest: an open, exposed comb with visible hexagonal cells and no papery envelope. That distinction changes the answer, because a paper wasp nest away from traffic frequently warrants no action at all, while a yellowjacket nest in the same position at the same time of year may. These are also useful predators of caterpillars, so removing one that poses no hazard is a net loss.

What a professional actually does

Worth paying for only when the nest is somewhere that makes a sting likely — a doorway, a play area, a handrail — or when someone in the household has a sting allergy. A nest under a quiet eave is generally best left alone. If you do engage someone, ask them to check the same eaves in early spring the following year, when a founding queen and a coin-sized nest are trivial to deal with compared with a mature colony.