European Paper Wasp

Polistes dominula · Bees & wasps

Paper wasp in flight

Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 26 July 2026

A paper wasp banking hard between stems of vetch in the July border, legs trailing - most likely the European paper wasp, now one of the commonest wasps in the city since arriving in the US in the 1970s and outcompeting several native Polistes for nest sites.

Despite the reputation, paper wasps are generally uninterested in people; the sting is a last resort, reserved for a nest under direct threat. They hunt caterpillars for the larvae, and a garden with paper wasps has fewer holes in its cabbages.

Paper wasps

Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 26 July 2025

Two paper wasps on a squash leaf in the July border, one just lifting off. European paper wasps nest under eaves, in railings and in the hollow stems of the borders across the whole of the eastern United States now, and they hunt caterpillars through the vegetable beds.

Told by the bold yellow-and-black banding and the orange antennae. Now one of the commonest wasps in the city after arriving in the US in the 1970s and displacing some of the native Polistes it competes with for nest sites. The nest is a single open comb hung from a stalk, made of chewed wood, which is the paper.