Do you know your wasps?
There are nearly 200 species of wasps known in Delta. Most are considered solitary wasps and most of these have a comparable life history. They capture and paralyze insects, put the insect in a burrow and lay eggs on them. The eggs hatch and then the larvae feed on the paralyzed prey. Next, the larvae form cocoons and eventually develop as adults.
The other wasps are considered social bugs. They create colony of workers, controlled by a queen who is the creator of them all. They build colony nests, often of wood fibers. Wasps feed on nectar, fruit and insects. Larvae are fed insects and pollen and are cared for by the workers. At the end of summer the workers die and only the young queen survives the winter. Here are a few social wasps we see: the eastern yellow jacket, European hornet, bald-faced hornet, bellicose paper wasp, red paper wasp, northern paper wasp, and European paper wasp. The European paper wasp is by far the most common.
gogreenpestcontrol.ca Ladner Tsawwassen Delta B.C. Randy Bilesky
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/do-you-know-your-wasps-randy-bilesky?published=t
http://www.delta-optimist.com/opinion/blogs/blog-do-you-know-your-wasps-1.20909432
