Personally, I can't imagine organic pest control without wasps. Paper wasps are really good caterpillar hunters, so I tolerate their presence... and they tolerate mine. I actively encourage them, by leaving weathered wood (an old woodpile) near my garden. I also grow plants which attract them, such as yardlongs, cowpeas, and cleome. There are hundreds of them on patrol in my garden.This strategy has virtually eliminated caterpillars in my garden (except for the darned cabbage loopers). Mud daubers keep the spider population down, so there are not many webs in my garden either. Paper wasps & mud daubers are docile by nature, so you would need to do something pretty threatening to get stung. They prefer, as others above have already noted, to "buzz" you as a warning. I've been stung only once by a paper wasp, and that was because it was on the backside of a yardlong bean I was picking, and I actually grabbed it. Even then, it just flew a couple feet away, and continued feeding. Short-bodied wasps such as yellowjackets & hornets are another matter. They will sting unprovoked, especially if you are anywhere near their nest... and they will swarm in response to certain sounds or smells. Since my grandchildren frequently come over, I won't tolerate a nest anywhere near my house or garden. Even the short-bodied wasps have their uses, though. When I grow peppers in isolation cages, aphid populations can explode in that protected environment. All I have to do to cure the problem is open up the cover. Within a day or two, yellowjackets will find the aphids, and it will be a feeding frenzy - and within a week, the aphids are gone.

In my yard tool shed every summer I have 4 or 5 paperwasp nests hanging there and I have found other places where there are several of these paperwasp nests close to each other. This sounds like something looking for a reason to exist to me. These paperwasps have always been very gentle and do not mind my messing around near their nests, unlike their cousins the Yellow Jackets that most often nest in the ground and are just mean and ornery.

I had about 6 wasps making a nest under the eave of my back patio for the past month or so. My patio is enclosed with windows so I didn't feel the need to disturb them and enjoyed watching them built their next and seeing it grow bigger each day. Last week, by the time they had about 4 little eggs in the holes of the nest, I went out in the morning to see the nest gone and laying on the ground! The landscaper for the hoa found it and knocked it down sometime that morning. I even saw some spray residue on my window. I was pretty pissed and upset for those poor wasps. Now a week later, there's 3 wasps left and they've started a new nest, but only a very tiny ball...much smaller than the original nest and they seem to be just hanging off it. They're hardly moving at all and I feel so sorry for them. Are they dying because it's late in the season and they don't have the energy to start a whole new nest? I feel so badly for them. They're just clinging to the tiny new nest and each other and hardly moving at all. Are they grieving? Dying? I wish I could help the poor little things. I have another nest in the front on the inside the porch light. Landscaper obviously hasn't seen that one (hopefully never does!) and I pass it pretty close when entering and exiting my house daily. They never bother me and I don't bother them.

That's too bad. They look like paper wasps, which are really docile. I've never heard of anyone being stung by them. They're really good for the garden, they hunt insects, caterpillars being one of their favorites. Yes, they'll kill swallow tail caterpillars, but they also kill tomato horn-worms, cabbage worms, bud worms, scale, aphid, mealy bug, sod web worms...etc. They aren't the cause of butterflies demise, they've lived in harmony with butterflies for thousands of years. It's us who are destroying the butterflies, by indiscriminate use of pesticides, but even more detrimental, destroying their habits. The poor wasps are innocent, and beneficial.