Red Paper Wasp

About the Red Paper Wasp

The Red Paper Wasp is the big rust-red wasp every Texan grew up giving a respectful distance -- one of the largest paper wasps in the country, deep ferrous red with smoky purple-black wings, and an unhurried flight that says it has nothing to prove. Along with its near-twin Polistes rubiginosus, it is THE classic "red wasp" of Southern porches.

The fearsome reputation is only half deserved. Away from the nest, a red wasp is a calm flower visitor and one of the garden's hardest-working pest controllers, hauling caterpillars by the dozen back to feed its larvae. The defensiveness -- and the memorable sting -- is strictly nest business, and even that is mostly bluff until the comb itself is threatened.

This one was photographed on July 8, 2023 in eastern Travis County, nectaring in the open during the same summer macro session that produced the grass-carrying wasp a few pages over.

Foraging wasps make surprisingly relaxed subjects: move slowly, keep off the line between wasp and nest, and you can work close enough to resolve the wing venation. The red-on-black color scheme rewards a dark background -- find the shade behind the flower.