Yes, though less efficiently than bees because they're not hairy. Adult wasps visit flowers for nectar and move some pollen. Fig wasps are essential: each fig species depends on its own tiny wasp for pollination.

Where do wasps go in the winter?

The colony dies. Only newly mated queens survive, tucked under bark, in woodpiles, attics, wall voids and sheds. On warm winter days they sometimes wander into living spaces. Old nests are not reused.

Do wasps have a queen?

Social wasps do: one queen starts the nest alone in spring and does all the egg laying once workers appear. Solitary wasps, the vast majority of species, have no queen; each female builds and provisions her own nest.

Birds such as tanagers, mockingbirds and starlings, skunks and raccoons that dig up yellow jacket nests, bears, dragonflies, praying mantises, spiders and robber flies. Some birds remove the stinger before eating.

Protein and sugar: open garbage, pet food, grilled meat, sweet drinks, fallen fruit and hummingbird feeders. Sheltered spots like eaves, deck rails, sheds and grills attract nest-building queens in spring.

What are parasitic wasps?

Wasps, many smaller than a gnat, that lay eggs in or on other insects such as caterpillars, aphids and fly larvae. The larvae eat the host from inside. They can't sting people in any meaningful way, and several species are sold for biological pest control.

Wasps: What They Eat, How Long They Live, Are They Useful

Q: How long do wasps live?

Worker wasps live about 2 to 4 weeks in summer. Males appear in late summer and die after mating. Mated queens live about a year, overwintering and starting a new nest in spring.

Q: Are wasps aggressive?

Mostly defensive, not aggressive. Paper wasps and mud daubers rarely sting unless their nest is touched. Yellow jackets are the exception in late summer, when colonies are huge and foragers scavenge food near people. Swatting and vibration near a nest cause most stings.

Wasps are insects related to bees and ants; the ones that bother US homeowners are a few social species, mainly yellow jackets, paper wasps and hornets, that nest near people and sting to defend the nest. The thousands of other wasp species are solitary or parasitic, rarely sting, and quietly control caterpillars, aphids, flies and spiders in your yard.

The wasps you'll actually see

Yellow jackets: 1/2 inch, bright yellow and black, compact. Nest underground or in walls. The picnic and trash-can wasp, and the main cause of stings.
Paper wasps: slender, 3/4 to 1 inch, brown, red or yellow-banded, long legs that dangle in flight. Open umbrella-shaped combs under eaves, deck rails, grills and mailboxes.
Hornets: the European hornet (over an inch, brown and yellow) and the bald-faced hornet (black and white, actually a yellow jacket) with its large gray nest.
Mud daubers: thread-waisted, black or metallic blue; build mud tubes on walls and in garages. Very docile.
Cicada killers: huge (up to 1 1/2 inches) ground-nesting solitary wasps in sandy lawns in July–August. Look scary, rarely sting.
Parasitic wasps: tiny to medium, many invisible to most people; lay eggs in or on other insects. Sold as biological control for greenhouses.

Full identification guide with photos: types of wasps.

Paper wasp with long dangling legs on an open umbrella-shaped comb under a deck rail — Paper wasps build open combs without a cover, usually no bigger than a hand.

What do wasps eat?

Adults and larvae eat different things:

Adults drink nectar, honeydew from aphids, juice of ripe and fallen fruit, and, in yellow jackets' case, soda, juice and beer.
Larvae need protein. Workers hunt caterpillars, flies, crickets and spiders, chew them up and feed the paste to larvae. Yellow jackets also scavenge meat, fish and pet food. In return, larvae secrete a sugary liquid the adults drink.

In late summer the colony stops raising workers, the larvae's sugar supply dries up, and adults go hunting for sweets. That's why wasps crash picnics in August and September.

What do wasps do for the environment?

Pest control. A single paper wasp colony can take thousands of caterpillars in a season; yellow jackets eat large numbers of flies.
Pollination. Wasps visit flowers, and some plants rely on them. Fig wasps are the famous case: wild figs are pollinated by tiny specialist wasps, and the common fig's pollinator is Blastophaga psenes. Most backyard fig varieties ("common" figs) set fruit without pollination, but Smyrna-type figs, including commercial Calimyrna figs in California, need the wasp, which growers bring in by hanging caprifigs in the orchard. So yes, wasps are pollinators, just less efficient than hairy bees.
Parasitic wasps keep aphids, whiteflies, hornworms and many crop pests in check, and some species are released deliberately in agriculture.
Food for others. Birds, skunks, raccoons, bears, dragonflies and mantises eat wasps and their larvae. UC IPM notes, though, that these predators don't keep yellow jackets in check around homes.

Wasp life cycle: queens, workers and winter

Spring: a mated queen that overwintered emerges, picks a sheltered spot and builds a few paper cells from chewed wood fiber. She raises the first workers alone.
Summer: workers take over foraging and building; the queen only lays eggs. UC IPM puts paper wasp colonies at about 15–200 wasps, on a comb rarely bigger than an outstretched hand. Yellow jacket colonies reach 1,500–15,000.
Late summer–fall: the colony raises males and new queens, which mate. Workers, now with less to do, become more defensive and scavenge.
Winter: the old queen, workers and males die with the first hard frosts. New queens hide under bark, in woodpiles, attics, wall voids and window frames.

How long do wasps live? Workers 2–4 weeks, queens about a year. Old nests are never reused, though a new queen may build nearby.

Are wasps aggressive?

Away from the nest, most wasps ignore you. Problems come from:

Disturbing a nest (mowing over a yellow jacket hole, grabbing a deck rail with a paper wasp nest underneath).
Swatting a foraging wasp.
Late-summer yellow jackets at food and drinks.

Paper wasps and mud daubers are the most tolerant; yellow jackets and bald-faced hornets the most defensive. Unlike honey bees, wasps can sting repeatedly. See bee and wasp stings.

What attracts wasps

Uncovered trash and recycling with sweet residue
Pet food left outside
Fallen fruit under trees
Sweet drinks and grilled meat at outdoor meals
Hummingbird feeders (use bee guards)
Sheltered nesting spots: eaves, soffit gaps, deck undersides, sheds, play sets, unused grills

Wasps vs bees at a glance

Bees are hairy, stocky and feed only on nectar and pollen; wasps are smooth, shiny and narrow-waisted and feed their young on insects. A honey bee leaves a barbed stinger and dies; a wasp keeps its stinger and can sting again. If the insect is circling your burger or crawling into a soda can, it's a wasp, almost always a yellow jacket. See bees for the bee side of the comparison.

Do birds eat wasps?

Yes. Summer tanagers specialize in bees and wasps and rub off the stinger before swallowing; mockingbirds, starlings, kingbirds and many flycatchers also take them. Skunks and raccoons dig out yellow jacket nests at night, which is why you may find a torn-up hole in the lawn in fall.

What people who dealt with it say

Wasp threads on r/pestcontrol and r/homeowners are mostly about paper wasp nests on porches and eaves, plus ground nests that turn out to be yellow jackets:

Paper wasp nests are the easy ones. A technician who removes several a day said he often just knocks them down with a long brush. His sting-free method for homeowners: hit the nest with a knockdown wasp spray, then pull it off. Spraying at night and knocking the nest down the next morning is the most common homeowner routine, and it rarely goes wrong.
The same spot gets rebuilt. Balconies, deck corners and play sets attract new queens year after year. People who stopped the cycle knocked down starter nests every week or two in spring, or had the eaves treated with a residual pyrethroid. Some swear that a fake paper nest kept wasps away from a favorite corner. It's anecdotal, but cheap to try.
"Paper wasps in the grass" are usually yellow jackets or solitary wasps. Pros point out that paper wasps don't nest in the ground. In one case, a swarm of European paper wasps over a lawn traced back to a hollow metal pipe or gate post.
High nests: call someone or leave it. For second-story rooflines, homeowners recommend a pest company (usually cheap for one nest), a 20-foot jet spray from the ground at dusk, or a roof rake. In townhomes the nest is often the property manager's or HOA's job.
Soapy water works on small nests. Several people kill early paper wasp nests with a pump sprayer of dish soap and water. It doesn't reliably reach deep ground or wall nests.

Controlling wasps around the house

Spring is the easy window: a queen's starter nest is golf-ball size or smaller. Knock it down with a broom or hose after dark.
Traps baited with protein early in the season and sweet bait in late summer catch yellow jackets (not paper wasps). Hang them away from where people sit.
Seal gaps in soffits, siding and vents to keep queens out of walls.
Nest treatment with a labeled aerosol or dust at night, or a professional for large, hidden or high nests.

Plastic bottle wasp trap baited with liquid hanging in a fruit tree away from the table

Step-by-step methods: how to get rid of wasps and wasp nests. Call a pro (roughly $100–$400 per nest, approximate) for nests in walls, attics, the ground near play areas, or when someone at home is allergic.

Wasps