what kind of wasps?

daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)

14 years ago

OK, not exactly a disaster, but a pest of some sort. We get wasp nests here in central Texas. They hang under eves, getting up to the size of a softball, covered with little holes which enter into tubes. The buggers *look* like mud daubers, about an inch long, with a very narrow waist. Completely black. But when you knock a nest down in the evening, a horde of them come out, and fly straight toward the nearest light.

Now I always thought that mud daubers weren't social. These sure are! About a hundred came out of the nest I knocked down this evening. The nests sort of look like ones of paper wasps, and those guys are social, but I couldn't find any pictures of all-black paper wasps.

Any ideas about what they might be?

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Comments (2)

User
14 years ago
Like this one? Blue mud dauber:
daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
Original Author
13 years ago
Thank you. I saw that, but the mud daubers are solitary. These wasps are VERY social. But a correction.

Now that I've managed to get a close look at them (they were all clustered under the porch light in the morning). I see they really have yellow rings around their hind quarters. So that means they are "paper wasps".

My apologies for the incorrect description. Yes, at night,in the dim light, they really did look all black!

These paper wasps are really remarkable. I hear they are good for insect control. Had their nest not been right next to my front door, I would have just let them go.

How did I get make the big cluster of paper wasps go away? I just hit it with a hose stream. A few of them were seen later on flying around where their nest used to be, but I'll keep the from building another one there.
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