European Paper Wasp (Polistes dominula)

No sooner had I got home from purchasing a couple of potted Sunflowers, laying them out on the garage roof ready to water, when a couple of wasps landed on one of them.

As I was busy I almost didn't give them a second glance or reach for my camera, but I soon grabbed it when I realised they were not your bog-standard common wasp and might be, for the UK, something a lot more exotic - European Paper Wasps.

In all honesty, I can't swear the second wasp was the same species as the first because it flew off as I was taking photos of the latter, but my brief scanning of it suggests it was?

Luckily I managed to get a shot of its face, which allowed me to ID it as Polistes dominula.

Although the most common Paper wasp on the continent, this is a rare find in the UK, with suspected occasional attempts to establish itself not yet having succeeded. NBN currently has just 27 confirmed records, but it's possible its presence goes unnoticed or unrecorded?

Considered a non-aggressive social wasp species it's capable of stinging if, for example its nest is threatened.

Nests consist of wood pulp and saliva, forming spheres with visible hexagonal cells for eggs. Once a cell is filled with a fertilized egg, it is given an orb-like white cap. When larvae hatch, they are fed chewed up pieces of caterpillars by worker wasps.

Looking like a cross between a common social wasp and a Mason wasp, Paper wasps are generally slimmer with noticeably slimmer waists.

Adults drink flower nectar and occasionally rotting fruit.