Rewilding My Lot

Wasps are like volunteer pest control officers for your garden, and they also serve as pollinators. Usually if you don’t mess with them, they won’t mess with you. As far as I know, I don’t react badly to wasp stings, so as much as possible I let them do their thing in my garden. They are likely to be eating other insects that I do not want, e.g., aphids.

This is an Apache Paper Wasp. I had recently watered the Texas Mountain Laurel tree, and there were droplets on the leaves. I think this wasp was drinking. At one point, it was carrying a sphere of water and I wondered if it might fly away with it, but then it stayed on the leaf and presumably drank it because the droplet got smaller as I watched.

It is possible that this wasp came from the nest that formed on the patio ceiling a few weeks ago. Paper wasps are so called because they take plant fibers and mix them with saliva to make their nests. Unlike the more aggressive hornets and yellowjackets, paper wasps generally only attack if they or their nests are threatened. This nest is probably vacant now, so I’ll remove it when I next have a chance.