35 replies to this topic

[Skwiggledork]

Just caught a Polistes dominula colony on Friday and got their nest situated. I saw five wasps before I tried to catch them, but I only managed to catch 4. Luckily one of them is significantly larger than the others, so I am pretty sure I caught the foundress. Took them a little while to find their nest, but hopefully this is going to work well and I'll be seeing more of them soon.



 

[dermy]

Finally someone who is doing was stuff with Polistes, not my favorite species due to them being invasive in some areas, as well as displacing other Polistes species but still better than Vespual for keeping! It looks like there are a few capped cells so you should be getting more workers soon. They can be free-ranged after they hit around 7+ workers (when the queen is less likely to leave the nest) but I know with Polistes you can also get away with keeping them contained for much longer. With Vespula it's best to free-range them once they have 10+ workers or it gets too dangerous to contain them

[Skwiggledork]

Finally got them to eat some protein. I was starting to worry. I tried leaving mealworms, crickets, hornworms and wax worms in the cage for them to hunt and they didn't attack any of them. They even cannibalized a pupae. Finally got them to eat a cut up mealworm by offering it to them with tongs. One more wasp emerged and the day after I caught them I caught two more hanging out where the nest was, so I added them assuming they were from the same colony and just away while I was catching them, so I am up to seven wasps with a few capped cells in process.

[Skwiggledork]

My colony has doubled in size and is up to 13. After a few days of tong feeding them, they started getting really defensive and giving me threat postures every time I was working in the cage/ trying to feed them. On the bright side, the insect parts I left in the cage were chewed up yesterday and this morning, so they are starting to eat on their own.

[AntPhycho]

One of these times you'll open the container and meet a fleet of airborne wasps. 

[Skwiggledork]

From what I've been reading they have a three stage warning before they attack and I'm not pressing my luck past step one, but it's always a chance. I know I'm not allergic, so I'm not too worried about getting stung. Time will tell. XD

[TennesseeAnts]

Wasps are actually very intelligent for an insect.

[David19]

Finally someone who is doing was stuff with Polistes, not my favorite species due to them being invasive in some areas, as well as displacing other Polistes species but still better than Vespual for keeping! It looks like there are a few capped cells so you should be getting more workers soon. They can be free-ranged after they hit around 7+ workers (when the queen is less likely to leave the nest) but I know with Polistes you can also get away with keeping them contained for much longer. With Vespula it's best to free-range them once they have 10+ workers or it gets too dangerous to contain them

I used to attempt to raise Vespula maculifrons but I failed every time. 

[ponerinecat]

Wasps are actually very intelligent for an insect.

each wasp has a separate personality

[TennesseeAnts]

Wasps are actually very intelligent for an insect.

each wasp has a separate personality

I had two Polistes carolina queens, one was super aggressive and nervous, while the other was calm as can be. She would let me hand feed her.

[dermy]

 

Wasps are actually very intelligent for an insect.

each wasp has a separate personality

 

Yes, I see with my current relocated free-ranging Dolichovespula arenaria Colony a few different personalities. Including a worker that always comes out first when I go to check on them, especially at night time. I'm not too sure if you have the ability to but if you can try Free-ranging the colony (by now the queen should be nest bound) will make it much easier since they can go out and collect their own materials/food. However seeing as it is Polistes you may be able to get away with fully captive keeping assuming you can keep up with the food demand etc.

[Macleod]

Oh, cool photos! Once I came across with a Polistes colony in Berlin. I wanted to keep them in my father's summer house however unfortunately he couldn't get into the idea of keeping wasps at home. We had to relocate them to my father's warehouse for sale in Berlin but he got rid of my colony when they costed him a customer. He told me that the poor guy ended up in hospital

Edited by Macleod, August 20 2019 - 3:13 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

I have been finding Vespa crabro queens at my porch light recently. I found two dead on my door, so I now have two huge hornet specimens.

[Skwiggledork]

Sketchiest thing I've done so far. I had the container they are in balanced over the edge of the shelf they are on and me laying under the big escape route, so I could get a picture up into the nest. Current count 19, and a few larva visible.

[Acutus]

Nice pic! Was worth the risk! Lol

[ponerinecat]

my friendly neighborhood nest.

[mbullock42086]

 the southwest has some amazing polistes species  socal alone has a whole lot of species, arizona has even more

  apachus is a good one that's common here, gets huge and makes the biggest nests out of all the species I've seen so far

[dermy]

You guys are lucky with your Polistes. I've also noticed this isn't in the Off-Topic Journal Section so I've placed it there. Please keep us updated

[Skwiggledork]

Thanks for moving it. I hadn't intended on making it a journal, but I'm excited that it's working out so I keep updating it. XD

[Skwiggledork]

 

Lots of larva. Hopefully I will see a jump in population soon. I counted 18 wasps(2 off camera) I don't remember any dying and none have escaped, so either I missed one in this count or I over counted last time. I started offering them more food to see if that was holding them up any. We'll see what happens.