Crawlies with Cri – Social Wasps

photo of a western paper wasp nest with three male and three or four female wasps on it.
The queen of this Western Paper Wasp colony reused an old nest from a few seasons ago. She saved herself a lot of energy. Now, in Sept. all but one or two future queens have hatched. Three males (yellow faces, green eyes) and some females guard the nest while the ladies finish raising the last members of the hive. Photo by Christy Solo

By Christy Solo – ONPA 1st Place Award Winner for Best Local Column

In honor of Labor Day this week we’ll meet some social wasps – the ultimate example of working hard and working together!

There are at least 208 species of social wasps in North America. Nearly all those species have the same life cycle, type of nest, assignment of work duties, etc. However, we’ll focus on paper wasps to keep things relatively simple.

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