How much dangerous are the paper wasps?

Unlike other social wasps (like yellowjackets and hornets), paper wasps are not so aggressive. They only attack if they themselves or their nests are threatened. However their stings are painful and can produce a potentially fatal anaphylactic reaction in some individuals.

A stinger is actually a modified egg-laying tube which is connected to a venom sac inside the body. A paper wasp is quite capable of stinging repeatedly because it can easily withdraw its stinger from the entry point. When a wasp wants to sting, it curves its abdomen downward and punctures the victim's skin with its sharp stinger. Muscles then drive the stinger deeper into the flesh. Meanwhile, venom is being pumped from the venom sac, through the stinger, and into the wound. It is similar to how a hypodermic needle works. Chemicals in the venom cause the pain and irritation from the sting.

Only the female wasps have stinger. So only the female wasps are capable of stinging.

How do paper wasps build nests?

Paper wasps use paper to build their nests. To make papers they need to collect wood fiber. They collect wood fiber by using their mandibles to scrape it from worn and weathered wooden fences, buildings, telephone poles, and other sources. Sometimes they collect fiber from man-made paper products such as paper bags or cardboard boxes. Then they chew it in their mouth and mix it with saliva so that it becomes more soft and moist. Meanwhile they make a structure of the nest with silk. After chewing the woods, they add the paste to the nest structure and spread it out. After it thoroughly dries up, the nest becomes ready to live in. A complete nest contains up to 200 cells.

A well established colony of paper wasps can have two hundred or more individuals living on a nest with the size of a man's outstretched hand.

Wasps can be found on flowers, particularly from goldenrod in late fall. Paper wasp nests can be dislodged from eaves using sprays of high pressure water from a good distance, taking precautions not to allow wasps to attack nearby people or pets. Wasps will eventually abandon the nest.

Life of paper wasps

Like other social wasps paper wasps lead a social life. But unlike others, paper wasps community don't have any queen, drone or worker classification. All the members in a nest are involved in food gathering, nest building, and producing and rearing young. Generally about 200 paper wasps live together in a nest.

Paper wasps have a life-cycle which has four stages:
1. egg,
2. larvae,
3. pupa,
4. and adult.
This is called "complete metamorphosis". The entire process from egg to adult takes several weeks to finish.

In spring paper wasps start building their nests. The fertile females lay some eggs in cells and hatch into legless grub-like larvae. The females look after the larvae and gradually after several stages they become the adults and the basis of the nest.

In autumn the colony begins to die out and only a few young females survive to carry on next season. These females hibernate through winter and emerge in spring to build a small nest that forms the basis of a new colony. 

What is paper wasp?

Paper wasps are some kinds of social insects who build nests of gray papery materials around home often under eaves or ledges. They are 1.9 to 2.5 cm long, tan in color with darker bands and some yellow on the face.
They are also commonly known as umbrella wasp because of their umbrella shaped nests.

About 1100 species of true paper wasps are available on earth and 50% of them are found in Neotropics area.

Unlinke yellowjackets or hornets, common paper wasps are not so dangerous. Generally they only attack if they themselves or their nests are threatened. However as their sting are quite painful and can produce a potentially fatal anaphylactic reaction in some individuals, their nests in human in-habitat areas may create an unacceptable hazard and so those nests should be destroyed immediately.