It doesn't look like any polistes type I've seen.

But you have to disturb the nest or the individual to make any wasp sting
...

Mary



There are ~300 species and subspecies in genus Polistes. The Europen paper
wasp is just one, and is quite common in the west and south west US. Where
do you live?

The difference between the paper wasps and, say, the yellowjacket, is how
much it takes to get them to sting. Yellowjackets are usually considered
to be much more aggressive. You can pick up a honey bee in your hand and
it might not sting you. You can hold a bumble in your hand. Do that with a
yellowjacket and it will most likely sting. I kill yellowjackets and bald
face hornets with extreme prejudice. I welcome all other types of bees and
wasps.


I know from experience you can put your face 12 inches from a paper wasp
nest, and they will ignore you. When springs are warm and wet, they build a
lot of nests in the entry ways to the buildings I used to live in, and I
would stop and look up and see a nest 12 inches from my nose. They never
bothered anyone comeing and going. My daughter came within a couple feet of
a bald faced hornet nest, and they took off after her. That night, the nest
met with an untimely demise

When I was younger, we lived on the island of Guam. We have a wasp there
similar to the paper wasp in temperament and nest building habits, we call
them bounee bees. When we playing in the yard with a ball, the ball got
stuck in a small bush. My friend went up to the bush and starting kicking
it, disturbing a large nest of bounee bees. They swarmed out of the nest,
looking for the cause of the disturbance. My friend slowly walked away, and
didn't get stung once. I, being young and fearfull, ran for it, and got
stung twice. Had I calmly walked away, I would have been fine, as the rest
of us were.

Don't do that to a yellow jacket nest, or a nest of "killer" bees, if you
can find such a thing - we don't have them up here in the Northwest, but we
did when I lived in Las Vegas, and they are extremely aggressive.