It’s been warm and wet, a bit earlier than usual for summer. So the ‘buzzies’ (paper wasps, mud wasps and others) have been very active – sometimes we have to close the back glass doors because a dozen or so are flying around looking for a good place to construct their nests.
The one below had made hers on a thin stalk under the table on the front deck – right where a person’s knee would connect with it. So reluctantly we had to remove it. After taking the photo, in which you can see the wasp, the eggs (in the cells on the right) and the protective ‘stuffing’, I carefully picked it up and transported it under the house – our place is on stilts. Carefully as I didn’t want to damage it, nor get damaged by an irate stinging wasp – those colours mean either ‘watch out, I’ll sting you’, or ‘I’m pretending to be able to sting you’. I didn’t want to call her bluff.
Wasp with nest and eggs
http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_wasps/Polistinae.htm
I’d say the above website nails the wasp as Polistes humilis – they “are aggressive with potent sting. They will attack and sting if their nest is disturbed”! I had kind of assumed that, to be on the safe side.
