Median Wasp

We’ve been watching this wasp working on Ivan’s bench at the allotment. It’s large so could be mistaken for a hornet, but it’s not. When she flies nearby she creates quite a breeze with her wings! It is a Queen median wasp (Dolichovespula Media) as identified using the information on this site (and confirmed by the UK Bees, Wasps and Ants Facebook group) particularly regarding the yellow marking that look like 7s on the thorax. It seems that this species of wasp only arrived to our shores in the 1980s and is sometimes called the French Wasp. 

She’s scraping layers of wood to make her nest which will be a hanging structure from a tree or in the hedge - I’ll see if I can find it, but won’t disturb it as that’s when they may get aggressive. When her nest is complete she’ll lay her eggs to produce the first workers who’ll emerge in the early Summer.

The workers look slightly different from the Queen, more like our common yellow jackets. They feed on nectar which helps with pollination of various plants and hunt other insects to feed the Queen - which are two reasons why wasps are welcome allotment visitors.

Showing abdomen markings