About Wasps

Wasps, like bees, belong to the insect order hymenoptera.

The most common image people have of a wasp, is a yellow and black stripy winged insect, as pictured below, which is a Common Wasp, Vespula vulgaris.

Note how the wasp is pushing it's hairy thorax (upper body) into the flower of a raspberry flower. They have been the main pollinator of my autumn raspberries for a few years now!

However, despite the usual image of a wasp, wasps are variable in size and colour. Some are very tiny and hardly visible (especially parasitic wasps), whilst the wasp family itself includes large hornets.

Most wasps are solitary, but some are social. Depending on the species, wasps may be ground nesting, aerial nesting. They may be cuckoo species, perhaps targeting other solitary species. There are parasitic wasps which may attack beetles or Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). There are wasps which are omnivorous, taking other invertebrates as well as fruits, but there are those which specialise, such as the spider hunting wasps, which take spiders for prey.

Read more information about wasps:

Wasp life cycle

Do wasps pollinate?

Are wasps beneficial?

Wasp nests

How to deter wasps naturally

Wasp sting treatment and first aid

Wasps and hornets

Wasp FAQs

The difference between bees, wasps and hornets

The difference between Common Wasps and German Wasps.

Bee and wasp repellent