Insects
Wasps (Hymenoptera, Apocrita)
Social or paper-nest wasps (Vespidae, Polistinae & Vespinae)
Sighting 4207675

Polistes (Polistes) chinensis

Asian paper wasp at Bega, NSW

Polistes (Polistes) chinensis at Bega, NSW - 20 Apr 2019
Polistes (Polistes) chinensis at Bega, NSW - 20 Apr 2019
Polistes (Polistes) chinensis at Bega, NSW - 20 Apr 2019
Polistes (Polistes) chinensis at Bega, NSW - 20 Apr 2019
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Identification history

Polistes (Polistes) chinensis 24 Apr 2019 KimPullen
Polistes (Polistes) chinensis 24 Apr 2019 JRideaux

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5 comments

JackieMiles wrote:
   25 Apr 2019
If the nest is handy to your place, do you think you could get a better photo showing the shape of it? It would be handy to have to show any difference in nest shape from the native paper wasps. Then maybe give them a squirt with the pyrethrum or whatever insecticide you have handy. When doing the native paper wasps when they get a bit excessive under our eaves, I do it first thing in the morning when they are sluggish, so they don't attack me when I get close.
JRideaux wrote:
   26 Apr 2019
Thank you for your response Jackie. I have a photo which shows the nest clearly but can’t work out how/where to upload it here. It’s about 17cm x 10cm and an inverted mushroom shape like the native paper wasp nest. We did an early morning ant and wasp killing powder application on the nest which does appear to have been effective.
JackieMiles wrote:
   27 Apr 2019
Hi, If you get your sighting up and click on the edit button up the top it will let you add more images. Good that you knocked them off, though I daresay yours wasn't the only nest in the vicinity of Bega, since my partner Max got a photo of a wasp at Kisses Lagoon. I doubt they travel that far.
JRideaux wrote:
   27 Apr 2019
Photo successfully uploaded - thank you. This article about Asian and Australian paper wasps living in New Zealand is somewhat reassuring as it seems the two can live together in harmony and the Asian wasp doesn’t seem to be more problematic for people than their Australian cousins. https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/paper-wasps-guests-or-pests/
JackieMiles wrote:
   28 Apr 2019
Thanks for doing that with the photo. I'll get it into the ID page for this wasp species. Hmm re the article. Without reading it, I'd have to think they'd be competing for food and hence the more introduced wasps there are around the fewer native ones there'll be. But yeah, from the quick on-line search I did it seems like they are not as dangerous to humans as the European wasp, which is also becoming more common on the coast, and is already very common on the tablelands, and is bound to be having an ecological impact.

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