Paper wasps nesting success and failure!

[flossiepip]

I've been looking out for Paper wasp nests in our garden as we have a few Australian wasps and I've been hoping to locate a nest or two to photograph. Found lots of Asian paper wasp nests but only two Australian ones. Keeping a close eye on these various nests has been most interesting so far to see just how many fail for one reason or other. Of the two Australian ones, one of those has failed around half of the Asian ones as well. So from my un-scientific observations it would seem about 50% fail. What's hard is to understand why.
I've certainly seen wasps taken by spiders and the extreme weather of late seems to of accounted for the odd one or two but some seemingly well established nests have been abandoned and on close inspection the cells once full and health are now empty with the grubs taken. I know the female wasp puts a substance on the stem of the nest to keep ants away so what else could raid a wasp nest!

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Both of the nests illustrated were lost.

[David Riddell]

Very interesting observations. Have to admit I spray out any nests as soon as I see them - if I get a sting I'm up for several days of swelling, itchiness and general misery. I have seen the odd empty nest that I haven't personally dealt to, but wouldn't be able to put numbers on it. As to what may be cleaning out the nests, I just found this paper - https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 ... 013-0329-z - which describes predation of Asian paper wasp nests by slugs, of all things! The slug species involved (Lehmannia valentiana) doesn't seem to be present in NZ, but we have related species here. But whether that's what's causing the nest failures at your place I have no idea.

[Jim_j]

Lets hope there are some parasitic flys or wasps around that are having some form of control.
There is some interesting stuff on the Landcare site re parasitic wasps being collected in the UK for control of the German & Common wasps - fingers crossed!!

cheers
jim

[Charlotte]

Last winter we put out some sugar water and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen a paper wasp where we live (Lower Hutt, Wellington). They stopped the birds from getting to it and the three wasps patrolled access to the water. We’ve since stopped putting it out so that they don’t take up residence too close by and see us as a food source. I hadn’t realised they were in the Wellington region.