Polistes carolina question

[LeilaNami]

With my new-found interest in wasps, I was looking to start a second paper wasp colony. I have two colonies of P. carolina in my shed. One just started with a single foundress and another a little more established (6 wasps on the nest that I can see). The larger one interests me because with my P. exclamans colony, I've noticed some varying markings between individuals. On the P. carolina colony, half the wasps are the typical solid reddish brown but the other half have two bright yellow vertical stripes down the head and face. Is this a normal variance in P. carolina or am I mistaken in my ID? Has anyone seen this big of difference in markings on their colonies?

 

[Tleilaxu]

It COULD be a Polistes fuscatus colony. Polistes fuscatus tends to mimic other wasps in various regions and have numerous color patterns. Either way I would take the smaller colony with the single foundress. If you look up Polistes fuscatus on bugguide you will see the variations in this species. And some are solid red.

 

[LeilaNami]

It COULD be a Polistes fuscatus colony. Polistes fuscatus tends to mimic other wasps in various regions and have numerous color patterns. Either way I would take the smaller colony with the single foundress. If you look up Polistes fuscatus on bugguide you will see the variations in this species. And some are solid red.

Oh I didn't know that species could be that color! Is it harder to reestablish a colony with multiple wasps?

EDIT: Our P. exclamans is hanging in there by the way. We lost one with a gimpy wing but we still have 4 workers and a new foundress. They wouldn't eat the moths but we caught them eating lacewings.

 

[Tleilaxu]

Its harder to catch a colony with multiple wasps without getting stung or the queen escaping..

Polistes fuscatus red version

 

[dtknow]

Could always try capturing both. If you don't want one colony you could put them back in the shed with their nest and they'd keep going about their business.



Just wondering has anyone attempted to go more than one generation of wasps in captivity?(i.e...have drones and queens mate and overwinter captive bred queens).

 

[Tleilaxu]

I managed to get males to mate and overwinter the queens but I released them in the spring. Its possible, but a serious pain, you need to remove the males from one colony and and swap them out with males from another colony and getting males away from their nest mates in a confined space is rather tricky... and sometimes the females just kill the new males for some reason its hard also to tell late workers from the new queens unless you see them mating...