Southern paper wasp
The southern paper wasp is a wasp with lemon yellow bands on its body. It lives in colonies and builds a nest out of paper that it makes itself. It scrapes fibres from old, weathered wood and presses them into thin sheets.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its nest has just one layer of open cells, and the openings point downward.
The cells at the edge of the nest are roundish, while the ones in the middle are six-sided.
Animals often raid its nests, so the wasps usually have to build a new one at least once a season.
It likes to build its nests on bushes such as holly and blackberry.
Most asked questions about Southern paper wasp
?How does a paper wasp make its nest?
It chews wood fibres from old, weathered wood and presses them into thin paper cells.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Polistes bellicosus
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Vespidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Vespidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Polistes bellicosus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Bob Peterson from North Palm Beach, Florida, Planet Earth!. CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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