The types of wasps in Texas, and which nests need a call

One question sorts the types of wasps in Texas

Colony wasps share and defend one nest; loners nest alone and rarely sting. Solitary wasps have no community nest to defend and rarely sting unless mishandled or trapped against the skin, E-239 says.

In the ground, solitary wasps often nest in groups, each wasp in its own nest, the University of Minnesota Extension says. Yellowjackets share one opening and are much more likely to sting.

The colony wasps: paper wasps and southern yellowjackets

Of these two, paper wasps are probably the most common wasps people encounter across Texas, says Wizzie Brown, the Texas A&M AgriLife entomologist in Austin. Texas Parks and Wildlife calls Polistes carolina and Polistes exclamans, common through much of Texas, red wasps. Our guide shows how to read a paper wasp nest by its stage.

Texas A&M's Field Guide to Common Texas Insects says southern yellowjacket nests are most often underground, occasionally in wall voids, and some Texas colonies survive several years.

Size is not the warning sign: the colony wasps are among the smallest here.

The biggest wasps here are loners

Published body lengths of the wasps in this guide, in inches. The two colony wasps are among the smallest.

Southern yellowjacketworker

about 1/2 in

Paper waspsred wasps included

3/4 to 1 in

Red velvet ant, the cow killera wingless female wasp

about 3/4 in

Mud daubers

3/4 to 1 in

Great golden digger wasp

just over 1 in

Cicada killer

1 to 1 1/2 in

Tarantula hawkabout 1 1/2 in, up to 2 in

1 1/2 to 2 in

01/2 in1 in1 1/2 in2 in

• Lives in a colony that defends a nest
• Lives alone, rarely stings

The loners: mud daubers, cicada killers and digger wasps

The loners around a house rarely sting. Mud daubers don't defend their nests and rarely sting, says the University of California's IPM program (UC IPM), writing about California. The field guide says the organ-pipe mud dauber makes long parallel tubes, and the blue mud dauber stocks its nest mostly with black widow spiders.

Texas A&M AgriLife calls the cicada killer one of the largest stinging insects in Texas. Yet University of Kentucky entomologists say it is not a stinging hazard unless directly disturbed. The males that fly at people have no stinger. Since 2020, Kentucky's entomologists add, it has often been mistaken for the northern giant hornet, the "murder hornet," and the Texas A&M AgriLife clip below shows the difference.

UT Austin's Insects Unlocked collection holds a mud dauber, a cicada killer and a great golden digger wasp collected at Hornsby Bend in Austin in June 2017.

Tarantula hawks and cow killers: the worst stings, the least trouble

The worst stings here belong to loners that seldom use them on people. On Justin Schmidt's 1 to 4 pain scale, tarantula hawks rate a 4, and a velvet ant in the same genus as the Texas cow killer rates a 3. His 2019 study in Toxins calls both venoms exceedingly painful, with extremely low lethality.

Texas Parks and Wildlife counts about 13 tarantula hawk species in Texas, and one was collected on the Steiner Ranch trails in Austin. Colorado State University Extension says they are docile and rarely sting humans, and London's Natural History Museum says the pain usually lasts about five minutes.

Velvet ants are wasps, not ants, the field guide says, and the University of Florida's UF/IFAS Extension says they are not aggressive.

In Schmidt's table the colony wasps' genera rate a 2 or 3; a 2 is broadly comparable to a honeybee, says the museum's wasp expert Gavin Broad.

The worst stings belong to wasps that rarely sting

Sting pain on Justin Schmidt's scale, 1 (minor) to 4 (extreme), one dot per rated species. A number in a dot counts the species that share that rating.

• Lives in a colony that defends a nest
• Lives alone
• Dashed lines: fire ant and honey bee, for comparison

Which nests need a call, and which can stay

Call about a colony nest where people walk; leave a loner's. Those colony nests are what our wasp nest removal is for.

• Call: a yellowjacket hole where people walk. Colonies reach maximum size by August or September, E-239 says, and California's UC IPM says they get more defensive as the season goes on.
• Call: a wet patch on a wall or ceiling. A yellowjacket colony digging inside a house can leave a wet patch that develops into a hole, California's UC IPM says.
• Call: a paper wasp comb by a door. California's UC IPM says paper wasp nests shouldn't require treatment unless they are near people; see when a paper wasp nest is a job.
• Leave: a yellowjacket nest far from people. Leave it and mark the area with a warning sign, E-239 says.
• Leave: a loner's nest. Minnesota Extension says to tolerate solitary wasps whenever possible, and Kentucky calls cicada killer control generally unnecessary.

Leave it, scrape it or call a pro

A loner's nest is a leave-it or do-it-yourself job: California's UC IPM says mud dauber nests can come down in winter without spraying. A yellowjacket nest inside a house wall is a professional's job. The University of Florida's UF/IFAS Extension says the safest course is to hire a pest control operator.

Our general pest plan covers wasps, so eaves, soffits and overhangs get treated on every recurring visit, and a nest that turns up between visits comes down free. Without a plan, taking down an active nest is $299, currently from $199. See wasp control or wasp control in Austin. We never treat honey bees; we refer them to a bee specialist for live removal, and the referral is free.

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