A group of paper wasps had set up housekeeping in between a storm window and another window all summer without me realizing it. Unfortunately, I had no alternative but to spray the nest with pyrethrins, as they were in danger of entering the house. (I hated to do that!) Several were just stunned, and I was able to (carefully) handle them for some detailed photographs--these are wasps I usually do not approach closely. It was very interesting to be able to compare males (several present) with the more abundant females. This photo shows some (apparent) characteristic of this species:
- dark abdomen
- reddish thorax marked with dark lines
- yellow (partly) tibiae and yellow tarsi
Size measured from a specimen.
An example of a male from the same nest:
