Golden paper wasp

Eastern Washington

The golden paper wasp looks somewhat like a stretched hornet, but with longer wings and a short pedicel or waist between its thorax and abdomen. Adults drink nectar from flowers and juice from fruit.

Females make small paper nests from chewed plant material, stuff nest cells with living, immobilized soft-bodied insects such as caterpillars for their larva to consume as they grow and develop.

Mated queens overwinter in leaf litter, in rocks and in cool nooks and crannies in houses, including (as I've discovered a few times) well-insulated materials such as blankets. Golden paper wasps are tolerant of people and disturbance but will sting if nests are touched or moved, or if pressed up against while overwintering in the beds.

» Other Eastern Washington wasps

Golden Paper Wasp nectaring on snow buckwheat

Golden paper wasp chewing wood for paper pulp

Golden paper wasp nest

Robber fly predation on a golden paper wasp

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