SPORTSMAN CREEK CONSERVATION AREA

Image of the metallic coloured and parasitic Cuckoo Wasp which lays it’s egg inside other wasp nests to hatch and feed on the food inside. They are common and have been observed favouring Mud Dauber Wasp nests.

Macro image courtesy of local Wildlife Photographer Tony Belton.

This species of wasp can deliver a painful sting but are less aggressive than European Wasps. Around 15mm in length, red-brown in colour with an identifying white ring around abdomen.

I.D. courtesy of Ella Minton. Interpretive Officer, Australian Museum.

Gathering fibres from dead wood and plant stems, which they mix with saliva to construct water-resistant nests made of grey or brown papery material. Paper wasps secrete a chemical which repels ants. They will usually only attack if they feel  threatened and bites are painful. These wasps are beneficial in their natural habitat and are critically important in natural biocontrol on caterpillars, flies and beetles. Found across Sportsman Creek wildlife refuge, usually on fence lines.

Reference;  Wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper wasp.

Although these beneficial wasps look aggressive, Common Mud Dauber Wasps will only attack if  incorrectly handled or mistreated. This mother wasp is making mud nests in which to lay 1 egg in each,  food for the larvae is supplied in captured spiders.

These large black and yellow wasps are solitary and build nests of mud. Each cell hidden under mud contain 1 egg and a provision of spiders as food for larvae. They are a beneficial wasp species controlling summer spider populations around the building and are not aggressive.