We have 2 species of paper wasp in the Niagara Region.
These are some images of Northern Paper Wasp. In some of the images you will see that they are stripping bare wood for nesting material. They chew the weathered wood between the grains, so when you see a wasp of any sort on your deck of fence board chances are they are there for nesting material from May through August [fpg id=”1277591490_680x750_Polistes-Fuscatus.xml”]
1 is the Northern Paper Wasp Polistes fuscatus which is not really aggressive but bigger of the two species.
2 is the European Paper Wasps Polistes dominula. These guys are aggressive in fact I would call them Bastards! When disturbed they will go right for the face. I first noticed them in our area in about 1993-94. They were introduced and now they have spread over much of Ontario and other provinces. They like to nest in hollow piping but they will nest virtually anywhere