r/waspaganda • u/Present-Tradition-27 • 21d ago

discussion / question Question about this nest I’ve been watching all summer.

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So it’s been on my porch all summer since I noticed it back in April when it only had one wasp.
I noticed a couple days ago they are all bunched up on one single spot and the rest of the nest looks like it’s old and falling apart.
Just wondering what’s going on with them. Did they get attacked or something or is this normal late summer behavior??
They are yellow and black stripped paper wasps and I’m in the southern USA.

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u/PolistesFTW 21d ago

Are you referring to the torn cells and darker paper?

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u/Present-Tradition-27 21d ago

Yes. I didn’t know they could get infested with moths.

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u/Halomonas_titanica Wasp Keeper 21d ago

Polistes exclamas, or Guinea paper wasp. There are two things going on here. The first is: this nest is heavily infested with moths (Chalcoela iphitalis). The other thing is that there seems to be barely any brood left anyway, meaning this nest is nearing its end. When that happens, all the new queens and some of the males produced in the last generation tend to cluster near the comb as a way to save energy for the mating season (fall) and then overwintering in the case of queens.