Posted by marlene on March 10, 2004

Q: I'm a Naturalist in california. I visited a bug display in

San Francisco. they had a display of paper wasps in a large

tank, were they were building there nest from colored paper.

Do you have any advice of how to set up a display like this

I notice they had a mixture of probley sugar water and a low

small dish with millworms. I know San Francisco zoo has a

display with yellow jackets, but the jackets are able to leave the tank for food etc. I only seen this one display with paper wasps. Hope you can help.

A: Wow, what an interesting display that would be! I know that Honey Bees are often provided with hives that can be viewed for display but these bees have access to the outside and a "natural" diet. If you want to start a Paper Wasp colony, you'll need a queen. The queens overwinter, all other workers and males die in the fall (at least the species here in the Northeast do). I could easily believe you could start a colony with a queen in a large aquarium and if there is material for her to make a nest (providing paper for her to chew and make into her hanging nest sounds good) and food, she might readily "set up house keeping". She would have been fertilized in the fall, be able to lay eggs in the spring and initially those young produced would become worker females that would help her with later young. Keep in mind that they'll need more than sugar water. Paper wasps are quite carnivorous and will eagerly feed on caterpillars, some adult insects, and even bits and pieces of raw meat. The mealworms you mentioned sound like an easy food source too. Finding a queen wasp may be a little difficult so I would look closely under the eaves of buildings as this tends to be where they like to build their nests. If you only see one wasp, and no others arrive over time, you've probably got the queen. I don't have to tell you that they have a painful sting so be careful!

John Wiessinger ( March 12, 2004)