Yes, I have. All of them were gone out here at one time during the worst of the drought. Then I'd see very few the next couple of years. They seem to be doing a little better this year. I blame Neonicotinoid pesticides, but no proof of that. Between pesticides and GMO crops and habitat loss, I think eventually many species of insects could be facing extinction soon.

I see a few around, but no nests in sight. I think there may be a yellow jacket nest in my shed.

I do not miss them. They used to come to our swimming pool by the hundreds. This year we have them by the dozen which is more bearable.

Omar

There does seem to be fewer wasps than usual, although I got stung by a red one yesterday! The mud daubers are a completely different story. I don't remember ever having this many, and they are really making a nuisance of themselves, building everywhere. The irony is that their prey is spiders.

Jim

We have maybe 6 small nests in the eaves of the house. Haven't seen many bees though.

Thanks everyone for responding. Since Pam is seeing lots more than I am it sounds like less paper wasps is more of a southwest Texas event.

Funny thing is there were lots of nests last year. After a search I found only one nest. Must be one of those cyclic events with as yet an unknown cause.

Red wasps are very agressive compared to the usually mild mannered paper wasps. Plus the red wasp's sting "hurts like fury" as my grandmother used to term it. But with hardly any paper wasps I may have to learn to appreciate them.

My hubby is super allergic to red wasp stings. I am vigilant in watching for those near the doors. I do hit the red wasp nests that are too close to the entryways with a sharp spray from the water hose, from a distance. I don't see fatalities, but they will move on. Sorry red wasps, I can't take the chance with hubby's safety at stake. What if he couldn't get to the epi pen and I was away at work?

I have not seen any mud daubers in a long time. I wonder why?

We have tons of red wasps this year and between hubby and me, we've been bitten three times in the last 3 weeks. Lots of mud daubers too.

Pam and Lorelei, sorry about the problems with red wasps. If they'd just build their nests in out of the way places they could be tolerated since they only sting in defense of their nest. But no; if seems they like low hung birdhouses and spaces right over the door.

I am glad to hear y'all have plenty of mud daubers though. Maybe the spring rains have given them plenty of building material -- mud. As you probably know they collect spiders to feed their larva. Malcolm Beck said the nests he opened on his place contained about 90% black widows. I hope they have a liking for brown recluse spiders also.

To encourage mud daubers in drought years I fill an extra large plant saucer with clay soil, put a rock for them to land on and keep it moist. It looks like an international airport with five or six at a time coming and going.

I'm wondering if the warm winter had a detrimental effect on paper wasps, something like making them more subject to a disease or predation from lizards.

See, lizards are another story. They are my buddies. They do not bite or want to share the swimming pool so I don't bother them.

Omar

roselee: "Red wasps are very agressive compared to the usually mild mannered paper wasps."

Oh, I misunderstood... thought you were referring to red wasps (polistes carolina) as they are the paper wasps we normally "encounter" most often in our DFW neighborhood. Are you saying these are still around SA, but the brown/yellow paper wasps (polistes exclamans) are not? We've had just the opposite; the brown/yellows still visit us on the surface of the pool, but little presence and none of the usual nest building by the reds - which IS very odd this far into the year now that you mention it.

While the brown/yellow wasps are often around the garden and water, we rarely run into one of their nests. Always assumed they just like to build further away from human activity. Red wasps are almost the opposite, seeming to prefer the eaves over doors, backsides of gates, and foundation shrubs next to the hose faucets where they're often detected by sting. Hope they are well, but appreciate the break.

Guessing it's one of those normal variations, but worth watching as impact on pollinators and other critters from the stepped up ground/aerial spraying due to West Nile is still being studied.

Here is a link that might be useful: Texas paper wasps (TAMU)

We've had the reddish-brown paper wasps around all these years out here and they haven't stung us once. The only wasps we've had that stung us was one year when the yellowjackets nested on the property. They were pretty bad for a while.

We have gobs of the red ones here. Sometimes we can't use the pool because there are so many using it. I am in a constant battle to keep the nests off of the house. We also have tons of dirt daubers. We see very few yellow and black striped wasps, but there are a few. I am in DFW.

I haven't seen any paper wasps lately BUT I got stung by a yellow-jacket queen in early May. Luckily, I haven't seen where she made her nest cuz that REALLY REALLY REALLY HURT!!! AND it took forever to completely heal. But, I've got TONS of cicada wasps flying around this year.

I'm kind of late to this discussion. Sorry. I noticed a total crash in both paper wasp and mud daubers at our place in Austin. We used have many many flying around. This year they are all gone. I am a bit distressed by this. Who would monitor these kinds of insects I wonder and how would we know if there was a serious problem or if it was just a fluke disappearance?

Firely, I'm sorry to hear about 'the crash' in your yard. I don't know who if any might be moderating their numbers. If anyone else does let us know.

I think probably the drought had a lot to do with their scarcity last year, but paper wasps are making a comeback in my yard. This summere there were not as many as before, but I noticed a couple of medium size nests and a few small ones. At least there was enough to keep the aphids off the pecan trees, but not so many that they ate all the butterfly caterpillars.

Mud daubers were back, albeit in smaller numbers. I set out plant saucers with clay mud in them and while there were not as many visits as before where it looked like a major airport with their coming and going, the mud saucers were visited. Also they would came around looking for mud when I'd be watering, but with all the mulch I use not much mud is exposed.

How was the population in your yards this last summer?

I have lived here in Austin for about 14 years. The wasp population has been largely stable all that time -- even when the drought was really bad in 2011. I say stable but actually I should say present. The numbers did seem to be growing each year with more and more wasp nests being established. I did read somewhere that when a colony gets really large it can ironically become more susceptible to parasites. I am hoping that is what happened to cause their complete disappearance this year and that it is just a fluke unique to our property and not an indication of what is happening to everyone.