Welcome to the Wasp hobby

Hi everyone,

You may have been wondering where I've been these past few months since I am usually active in the scorpion sections. Well, as you may have noticed by now, I am intrigued by many forms of life (scorpions, lizards, spiders, beetles), which brings me to my next obsession: paper wasps. Apparently I am a part of a very small clan of enthusiasts who have ventured into this relatively young hobby.

I have basically capture two paper wasp nests (Polistes exclamans) and gave them setups in my unused exo-terra tanks. I have been feeding them water, sugar-water, honey, and various insects such as meal worms, crickets, flies, and my new favorite, wax worms. Feel free to ask me questions and I'll try my best to answer, although I'm still a beginner in this area. I hope everyone will at least appreciate these creatures and I hope to bring more members into this exciting new area of our invert hobby

Some pics:

Nest 1:




Nest 2:

Although really cool you dont get me near one of those!

How in the world do you "capture" a wasp nest and live to tell about it??

HELL NO!

i got stung my a wasp yesterday on my finger and it didnt go well at all i had it swollen to twice the size pains shooting up my arm and chest pain was not a good experience seems im alergic to wasps and mosquitos so dont wanna see what happens with a scorpopn sting lol

OH NOES! You better now though BEX? I am actually interested in this idea but have no idea how one gets a wasp nest and doesn't get killed.

Well Bex, scorpopn are new to me, but they do sound bad bad!

you wont see me trying this one lol, my nan did have an awesome wasp nest (once the wasps were removed) there building skills are amazing they made this perfect paper nest which was just beautiful i have pics somewhere will try dig them out

and yeah im fine now lol got some stuff to help when we was in sheerness yesterday filming so now its just my finger that hurst lol got me right below the nail on the front of the nail like below the cuticle bit still stinging like mad

Ow. How did filming go?????

I always get stung by these cretins. One time I get stung 3 times in row in the back of the neck while playing a fame of football in the backyard. 2 of my cousins both got stung twice as well. We have all kinds but usually the reddish ones are more prevalent.

man thats awesome but how do u catch em lol ive been stung twice by them one on my forehead the other on my throat right on the wind pipe lol it hurt for a half hour or so then it wasnt so bad i can imagine it sucks if ur allergic thou bex lol

my cousin got stung on the neck once and went into full on anaphylactic shock his airways completely closed so im petrified every time i get stung,

its not like most people think that the more you get stung the less chance you have of having a reaction its quite the opposite, every time you get stung your body becomes more and more sensitive to the venom thus making you more likely to have a bad reaction, the only way to get used to a toxin is to be injection with very small amounts on a regular basis

yeah ive herd that aswell about the more u get stung the venom bulids up in your system and can make u more prone to have a bad reaction from a sting did u read that i had my first two molts last weekend i was well chuffed lol

aw really thats awesome nothing like seeing your first molts i can rememv=ber thats all i was waiting for at one point and was awesome to finally see now im overun with he bloody things lol, the film crew for coast was well amazed by them yesterday

I'm gonna vouch that I have a lot of venom built up then and I might explode on my next incident. Sorry to hear about that with your cousin Bex.

Since many of you want to know how to go about capturing a wasp nest, here's how I did and how other members have done it:

Items used:

1) Tall, square container
2) A flat, long object such as a broad knife
3) A flat board such as a clipboard
4) Ladder or chair

The nest I located was just about 10 feet up on the outer rim of my house, so I only need a chair to close the distance. I went out during the night to capture the nest because they are not active during this period and all wasps are usually at the nest. I stood on the chair and used the container to cup the nest inside, wasps and all. I took the knife and cut at the base of the nest to free its hold (you can simply scrape it off with the container too). I then took the clipboard and slipped it over the top of the container. And there you have it a wasp nest with the wasps. Other people have sprayed the nest with cold water before doing it in order to immobilize the wasps, but I find this unnecessary when done at night time.

It's pretty simple and relatively safe. I think of all the insects I've kept, I fear wasps the most because they will go after you and sting you. Throughout my life I've been stung dozens of times and I sure as heck don't want to get stung again. They are very fascinating to watch they are always active collecting wood/paper material to build their nests, killing prey and processing the food to feed their young, or simply buzzing around the setup. It's also interesting to watch the larvae grow in size as they eventually pupate and to also see the progress of the developing nest.

No doubt this wasp tank will catch the attention of my friends since even you guys, advocates of things creepy and crawly, jumped at the idea

Hopefully more pics to come and of them feeding.

Here is a great video of another person's wasp nest. He had the brilliant idea of providing colored paper for his wasps to make the nest. This gorgeous nest is the result: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l95cByVqcG4

Update:

My second nest now has 7 wasps instead of the original 3. A new worker came out yesterday and today I have found 3 more fresh workers.

Here are pics of them feeding this very moment:

there awesome dude

I think you're nuts but now that I have said that watch and I'll have a wasp nest eventually. LOL They are cool though Bro. NEVER would have though about keeping Wasps as pets

Soon you have a few hunderd, even thousands of them in a smaller tank .. GOOD LUCK clearing that out! Id use a grenade..

Ok, I'm interested in this. They look real cool.
Can you bang up a sheet on care/ feeding/ room needed etc...?
Are they kept indoors or outside?
Ooh, an some pics of the whole setup please.

I just might look into this a bit more.



I have a mate who is a Beekeeper. I'd love try that but TBH I dont have the room for a Hive, money for the swarm and the desire to wear one of the floppy suits in view of my neighbours.

I second Peloquin.

yeah get a care sheet made up for them lol

Although they give me the shivers, they are quite lovely.

I'm curious. In the first pictures they look extremely large, but in the pictures of the new ones, they don't. What size are they? Have you measured?

Shanos: Thanks man!

Wyatt: No worries, I thought I was nuts at first too, but after they've settled down and everything has been set up, it's not bad at all I hope you jump into this area because they're very different from other insects I've kept--there's something about a hive and workers that gives it a super cool factor lol. By the way, queens start fresh nests in the Spring, which is the best time to capture the queen or the nest. All members of the nest except the new queens die off during the Fall as the new queens overwinter for Spring.

Pluto: I've thought about that too and it worried me a bit haha. I saw a youtube video of some guy who had 40+ wasps on his nest and he couldn't avoid being stung anymore. My plan if that happens is to simply take the tank outside and open up the doors so they can roam freely. The awesome part is they will return back to the nest after hunting/feeding

Peloquin: Here's a great caresheet done by one of the more experienced wasp keepers: http://www.venomlist.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19684
You can choose to keep them indoors or allow them to roam free outside. Also, I will try to get good pics of the setup when the lighting gets better. Hope you get into this hobby as well!

Annababe: Yes, they intimidate me more than scorpions, but they are very beautiful to look at. They appear large in the pics, but the ones I have (Polistes exclamans) are only about 3/4 of an inch.

More feeding pics taken from today:

Bite, Rip, Tear:





Wasps will process their food into round balls:



Look at their strength!