What types of wasps, hornets, and yellowjackets live in Nevada?

It’s no secret that these insects are the leading cause of screaming at outdoor events! Most of the species below can’t resist investigating a soda or sugary treat. 🙂

Despite their negative reputation, wasps and hornets have fascinating lives. In addition, many are beneficial because of the amount of pests they eat in your yard. They are also important pollinators!

But you do need to be careful around most types of wasps and hornets, especially if you approach their nest. They can become VERY aggressive when defending their home.

5 COMMON Wasps & Hornets in Nevada:

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#1. Bald-faced Hornet

• Dolichovespula maculata

Also called the Bald-faced Aerial Yellowjacket, Bald-faced Wasp, Bald Hornet, White-faced Hornet, Blackjacket, White-tailed Hornet, Spruce Wasp, and Bull Wasp.

• They have black bodies with ivory markings on their faces, legs, thoraxes, and abdomens.
• Look for three white stripes at the ends of their bodies.

Bald-faced Hornets are named for the ivory markings on their face. Despite the name, these insects aren’t true hornets. They’re actually a type of yellowjacket.

Bald-face Hornets don’t have a pleasant reputation in Nevada.

They aggressively defend their nests and can sting repeatedly. But while their appearance and nests can be scary, they’re pretty handy to have around (as long as the nest isn’t close to human habitation).

First, the adults feed on nectar and help to pollinate flowers. In addition, they also kill and eat other types of yellowjackets! Sometimes, in early summer, a nest will be so full of yellowjacket remains that it will have a yellowish cast! Unless their nest is somewhere you’ll come into contact with it, it’s best to leave them be.

I’m sure you have spotted one of their nests before. They are large, papery, and football-shaped. The queen builds these nests by chewing wood material and mixing it with her saliva to make a paste.

Bald-faced Hornet queens usually hang their nests from shrubs or trees. Sometimes, they’ll use other spots, including rocks, buildings, and other artificial materials. The queen typically continues creating workers into the summer until the nest has 100 to 400 individuals!

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#2. European Paper Wasp

• Polistes dominula

• Black with prominent yellow markings.
• They have thin waists and orange-tipped antennae.
• Their legs dangle as they fly.

These wasps’ bright yellow and black coloration means that they’re often confused with native Eastern Yellowjackets. However, European Paper Wasps are an invasive species in Nevada. Unfortunately, they are now widespread, and researchers have found that they often outcompete native paper wasps and negatively affect caterpillars like the Monarch butterfly.

One of the reasons they have spread across North America is because of their adaptability. European Paper Wasps will inhabit almost any habitat, including urban and suburban areas. They often are closely associated with humans and nest on or in human-made structures. European Paper Wasps often build nests under the eaves or attics of structures or in pipes, light fixtures, boats, grills, and mailboxes.

These wasps are known to be fairly non-aggressive. However, they will defend their nests, and stings usually occur when humans accidentally come in contact with a nest.

European Paper Wasps are omnivores. They will catch insect larvae, caterpillars, aphids, and other soft-bodied insects that they feed the young. Adults may also feed on flower nectar.

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#3. Western Yellowjacket

• Vespula pensylvanica

• Females (workers and queens) have a yellow loop around each eye.
• They are yellow with black markings and no hairs.

Western Yellowjackets are habitat generalists, building their nests in gardens, prairies, open forests, urban areas, parks, and meadows. Typically, they construct their nests in the ground, often using old rodent burrows or other existing holes to get started. Occasionally, they’ll nest in voids in the walls of houses and other structures.

These impressive nests are started in the spring by a queen who mated the previous fall and overwintered in a sheltered spot. The queen begins a small nest and lays eggs, caring for the larvae and foraging for materials until the first four to seven workers have emerged. After this point, the queen remains in the nest, laying eggs.

You may spot these creatures feeding on carrion or buzzing around picnic tables, trash cans, and fallen fruit. Western Yellowjackets are incredibly common to find living around people.

And unfortunately, these wasps can deliver an incredibly painful sting. Make sure you don’t wander too close to their nests, which they aggressively defend!

Another problem with Western Yellowjackets is their nests are typically underground, so it’s hard to spot one. These nests are often found in residential lawns and are inconveniently discovered while mowing the lawn. 🙂

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#4. Golden Paper Wasp

• Polistes aurifer

• Their coloration varies widely with location.
• Northern individuals are often predominantly black with some golden coloring.
• Southern individuals often have an almost entirely golden abdomen.

These wasps get their name from their unusual coloration, a softer golden yellow rather than the bright yellow of many other wasp species. Their scientific name, “aurifer,” also alludes to this coloration and is Latin for “gold-bearer.”

Queens start new nests in the late winter or spring. These wasps generally seek out high, sheltered locations to build.

As the name “paper wasp” suggests, the queens construct a nest from a paper-like material they make with saliva and wood fiber. The umbrella-shaped nests they create have open combs on the bottom.

The queens use the nest to hatch workers, which will help guard the nest and hatch more colony members. You may spot these workers visiting flowers, feeding on the nectar, or grabbing insects off plants, which they use to feed the colony’s larvae.

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#5. Apache Paper Wasp

• Polistes apachus

Also called the Texas Paper Wasp or Southwestern Texas Paper Wasp.

• They have dull orange-brown antennae.
• Primarily golden brown with alternating stripes of golden brown and yellow on their abdomens.

Apache Paper Wasps are most commonly found in Nevada in vineyards and orchards. They will also inhabit urban areas. If you observe them carefully, you’ll find they make frequent trips to drink water. It’s not uncommon to see Apache Paper Wasps using surface tension to stand on a puddle’s surface to drink.

Like many paper wasps, Apache Paper Wasps nests look a bit like an umbrella and have an open, downward-facing comb. By the end of the season, one nest may have up to 320 cells.

Their nests are started by overwintered, fertilized queens. Sometimes, these queens will work independently, while other times, other queens will help out, but these helpful females don’t always stay permanently. They often leave after construction to work on a nest of their own.

Since they hunt caterpillars, Apache Paper Wasps can be helpful to farmers as they provide some pest control. However, they have a painful sting, and their preference for vineyards and orchards has led to them sometimes becoming a nuisance.

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Learn about other creatures in Nevada:

• 14 Common SPIDERS Found in Nevada!

• 25 Common INSECTS that live in Nevada

• 18 Common SNAKES That Live in Nevada

• 34 MOST Common Birds in Nevada!

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Which of these wasps, hornets, and yellowjackets have you seen before in Nevada?

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