Not all wasps are nasty. Solitary wasps as opposed to grouping wasps are quite unthreatening. Even wasps pollinate plants (but seasonally) but they do far more good killing insects to feed their larvae. Insects that would chew on our plants. I think you will,find that a bee garden will attract unthreatening wasps, but if you leave meat out or swat a wasp or it feels threatened it will attack. I spent my earlier years in total fear of bees and wasps until I read up on them and learned to find ways to live with them.

Yes, they do *some* good... I had a lot of wasp problems in my last house, and in my area come late fall they become particularly aggressive... because they're about to die. They can be quite a nuisance, especially with young kids who don't know better than to swat and flee.

Thanks for the input - just one thing though: aren't bees attracted to the wasp traps too? I definitely need to find out what kind of wasps these are (they're unlike wasps I'm used to from my home country) and maybe that way I can find out more about them and their habits. Here's hoping my youngest doesn't look as threatening this summer! :-)

Bees are guided by colour and scent to be led into the mouths of flowers for nectar; wasps are more opportunistic foragers and thus will seek sugar water.
With my young kids I always kept a pair of tweezers and bee ointment bynthenkitvhen window just in case.
When I was 9 I cartwheeled onto a bee. My eccentric aunt took me to the kitchen and scraped off the stinger with a blunt knife and then cut an onion in half and rubbed it over my finger. To this day I don't know if it worked but I was so,astonished that I never felt pain afterwards!

The onion trick definitely works! Thanks again for the information re wasps/bees.