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Red Wasp (Polistes carolina)

I need any and all information on this wasp. I am trying to host Monarch butterflies, eggs and catepillars but this wasp searches my milkweed plants and sucks the insides out of the catepillars. Will a wasp trap work for these? I have seen these advertised for yellow jackets and wasps in general but I would like more information on these catepillar predators. I realize all bugs are helpful in one way or the other but I really love the butterflies. Thanks

Well...
Best of luck! I would appriciate a photo of the offending wasps attacking the monarch catipillar as this is still hard for me to believe. Also when you plant the "food patch" Use plants that will attract the widest host range of butterfly larva. As I stated earlier brocolli(spelling) and cabbage plants are great. Your goal should be to attract the "sweet more edible catipillars" so the wasps leave the monarchs alone which I bet don't taste as well. ((Perhaps they are desperate for the last batch of protien for their queen and male larva?)) LOL

I have the assassin bugs doing the same thing
to my pitters. So, instead of killing the "bad" bugs (I know, I know, they're not really bad), I bring 5-8 very small larvae inside and rear them in a 10 gallon aquarium. I free the butterflys as soon as their wings are ready. I always have one or two of them fluttering around me when I'm in my garden. And no harm done to other bugs.

Can't play favorites.
I'm sorry, but you just can't play favorites. Part of a respect for nature means tolerating those critters you don't like. I don't like alligators, but I know they are a keystone species in habitats like the Everglades, where they dig ponds during the dry season that help many other species survive the drought. Paper wasps, if that is indeed what they are, kill plenty of pest caterpillars, too, that would otherwise destroy some of the plants you like. Please show some restraint here. Thank you.

"Bug Eric" Eaton, author, "Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America"

 
Playing Favorites
I did show some restraint I believe but the monarch butterflies are losing their habitat plants here in Mississippi and I am sure elsewhere due to the fact that milkweed is considered a bad weed since it causes problems with most animals that consume it. Yes I agree that if the wasp was just killing my tomato worms I would not mind as much but butterflies to me are a joy. This is just my opinion and everyone is free to express this as we do still have free speech.

 
Sorry but I do not believe th
Sorry but I do not believe that polistine wasps are to blame for your monarch deaths. They maybe cashing in the kills of another bug. Still they don't make that much of an impact on local populations, Also I suggest planting more milkweed, and somewhere else plant brocolii plants this will attract cabbage whites and their catippilars will also help take the pressure off your monarchs. Milkweed attracts alot of things besides just monarchs and wasps.

 
Red wasps
I did a roof recently and replaced sheets of decking which had multiple large nests. And after I swatted away and fought my way through them and replaced the wood, I got down for a water break. And saw the most amazing thing! The old farmhouse was infested with wasps (P. fuscatus), the others, same species, where cannibalizing the larvae in the nests on the ground! Pulling them out and making off with them. They seem very opportunistic and I don't doubt you, Linda, that they are making a pest of themselves.
And, c'mon, Eric, lay off her. If your gators where in my yard bugging my goats, guess what I'd have for dinner? Don't have to get religious with people.
If you wanna get right down to it, I would go as far as to call them 'domesticated' anyway. Houses, rubbish piles, sheds, fences, disused cars, we amplify available, sheltered and suitable nesting spots a thousand times over, and they take full advantage of it.
I see a thousand walking around the yard and see very moderated numbers hiking through wildlife reserves.
And Linda, Tleilaxu offered an interesting and possibly rewarding solution, and I would not hesitate to supplement it with an elimination of as far a range of nests as possible, which can be found around (Eric) human structures and artifacts such as mentioned above.
Linda, I wish you luck with your Monarchs. My sister looks forward to the swallowtails on her dill garden every year, and I know what a joy she gets from them.

 
RED WASP NESTS
Hey, I could use those large nests for my collection! By the way, what are the measurements on these?

 
Diameter
They are in a dump trailer with a ton or so of torn off shingles, but the largest was probably a good 12-15" wide. I think bigger around than my computer monitor here. It was almost as if multiple nests had grown and joined together, with multiple 'support columns'. I took the time to pull it out of the attic and look at it, now that I think about it, I should have kept it. What I was really curious about, was if such a large nest was host to some of the more interesting parasites. There where hundreds of wasps on this one, I would have called 15-20 a big nest. But alas, It was time to work and not to play with bugs.
It's sure not the last one I'll come across though. Would you need frozen 'live' nests with eggs and such and adult specimens for ID?
In these old farmhouses we do, they grow undisturbed with hundreds of acres of surrounding brush and farmland for foraging. Another thing I've noted is the colonies seem to reach these gigantic proporsions in 'bee box' type spaces, like in between soffet and decking, fully enclosed with 4 inches of clearance while in more exposed areas the largest would typically be no larger around than a hand.

 
WOW!!!
I am stunned! A diameter of 12-15" is HUGE for any Polistes nest (Please send me that monster nest and any of the other huge ones if they are still in good condition)! In fact, I have a massive Polistes annularis (red wasp) nest in my own personal collection which measures 12" wide (literally the size of a dinner plate!!!). Here ya go:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/110251

Interestingly enough, this monster nest was also discovered within an enclosed space (a nest box for wood ducks). So, you could very well be onto something when you said, "Another thing I've noted is the colonies seem to reach these gigantic proporsions in 'bee box' type spaces, like in between soffet and decking, fully enclosed with 4 inches of clearance while in more exposed areas the largest would typically be no larger around than a hand". This is something fascinating which I didn't know about Polistine wasps before. I think more research needs to go into this to figure out why this happens. Perhaps the reason why nests grow larger in enclosed spaces is because they are more protected than exposed nests are. Who knows?

Anyway...

Yes, I would LOVE to obtain any large nests which you come across in your work from now on! Of course, I will be more than happy to pay for the cost of shipping to have them mailed to me. Please keep me in mind in the future and collect any large nests which you come across. Thanks a million, Ryan! Man, it is DEFINITELY great to find a new source for large nests! If you choose to do so, then you will be playing an important role in helping me to expand my collection of giant nests. :o)

Sure, you can send me some adult specimens for ID.

Regarding how I want the nests, I would prefer to receive them empty (NOT full of eggs, larvae, and pupae) because it would be nearly impossible to display the nests in my collection since the immature wasps would rot and stink. Nonetheless, if collecting nests which are not yet abandoned is the only way you can get them for me, then you can go ahead and send those to me also. I guess I could do the tedious job of using a pair of tweezers to extract the immature wasps out of their cells if you were to send me some full nests. Better yet, I could put the nests in my freezer to keep them preserved until I am able to send them to a taxidermist to have them freeze-dried (Hey, that's a great idea!).

By the way, I am also very interested in receiving other types of large nests too such as yellowjacket & hornet nests.

I think we should take this discussion into email. I DON'T want to hijack this thread! Here is my email address:

hornetboy1970@yahoo.com

I am looking forward to your reply, Ryan.

 
RedcWaps
Thanks, that is what I am talking about. They will build nests that are extremely large in our attic and when they sting it really hurts worse than most as my daughter was stung over a year ago and it left a scar. I will try planting things for them away from the milkweed. I really wanted a simple safe way to keep them from the monarchs as I do not use pesticides except in attic and under eaves for wasps nets.

 
A whole different matter then.
If the wasps are posing a threat to your health (and I know how painful a Polistes sting is), then of course you should take action. What I really have a low tolerance for are butterfly gardeners who only want to have the pretty little butterflies, and everything else is a pest to them. Forgive me, but that is what your initial post sounded like (whining). Ryan, I do have great respect for anyone doing a roofing job in the midst of annoyed wasps! But, I don't think I was being too harsh.

Really?
Are you sure they are eating the catipillars and not some stink bug or other type. Wasps do not suck the insides out of bugs, they chew them into balls and carry them back to there larva. The red wasps could be looking for aphids or some other sugar producing insect.

This would be the sirst case I have heard of a polistes wasp attacking a monarch larva which is toxic.

 
Carolina Red Wasps
I'm not an expert but I kind of like having the Red Wasps around. They are missing this year and my tomatoes were overrun with worms. I have never seen a Carolina Red Wasp "suck" out the insides of a bug. I have watched them out of just being curious and they do chew up the worm into a ball and fly off to their nest.
Anyone know what happened to the Red Wasps this year in East Texas?

 
Wasp
Yes I am sure. I have caught them several different times sucking on the Monarch catepillars and as they were doing this the sides sunk in so that is why I was saying this.Maybe next year I can get a picture. I have also seen this happen to tomato worms.

 
Maybe a lookalike?
As Terry Tleilaxu* says, Polistes wasps chew, rather than suck, their prey

The behavior sure sounds like an assassin bug, with the milkweed assassin, Zelus longipes fitting best as far a color and location.

Another sucking predator is a robber fly in the Family Asilidae. These tend to mimic various stinging wasps and bees, so I suppose there might be a species that looks like Polistes carolina. The main problem is that they're aerial predators that would be expected to prefer flying insects caught on the wing.

*Must have been half asleep- I saw a comment by Terry Prouty in another topic and somehow got my wires crossed.

 
LOL!!!
It sometimes happens to the best of us, Chuck! ;o)

Another butterfly gardener
How long have you been raising them? If it hasn't been for more than a couple years, you might want to read the end of my comment here. I had only a handful of milkweed come up this year, so I just killed the whole patch and prepared about 3,000ft for planting this fall.

See
http://bugguide.net/node/view/581 also look at
the links at the bottom

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