CLOSED: Wasp ID

No, don't have a picture. I usually don't stick around long enough. But one of them was dead, so if it's still there tomorrow night maybe I can get a shot.

First wasp is all black, no yellow or white or any other color. Thread waisted and aggressive, very buzzy. I think they're the ones that have built another nest by my front door.

Second wasp (the dead one on the front stoop) is yellow and black in thin stripes of each. Other than that looked like your garden-variety wasp.

They're going to die as soon as I can get the exterminators out here. I don't want a wasp nest right beside my front door where they could sting me as I'm fumbling with my house keys. Or where they could swoop into my house when I open the door.

No one has any idea? In Dave's garden?!

Are they that uncommon a species?

There are wasps called Thread Waisted Wasps, but that's just a common name and probably applies to a bunch of wasps...got pictures? I think there's about 1200 kinds of wasps, and a lot of them are very specialized predators for certain pest species

Are their nests tubular 'mud' cells or grayish honeycomb-like paper wasp nests -?-
Mite help narrow things down a bit - if you've seen or noticed them, that is.

Sure seems that there jes couldn't be too many possibilities, in Colorado ..

enature.com (condensed web link) > http://tinyurl.com/h35qc

Do any of these guys look similar? > http://bugguide.net/index.php?q=search&keys=thread-waisted+wasps&search=Search

- Magpye

Their nests look a lot like the siding of my house. They nest behind a broken off piece by the front door.

There's a pile of weed-choked debris in the back yard. I've seen a lot of wasps buzzing there.

And of course there are those massive junipers. Who knows what's hiding in there?

Probably Shelob's children.

Those thread-waisted wasps are solitary and not aggressive. They don't protect their nests like the social wasps - yellow jackets and hornets, for example. They will sting if they think they are in danger - like if you swat at them (maybe) or do something aggressive. But if you just leave them alone, they will leave you alone too. They take many bad cats - cutworms and the like - to provision their nests which they make from mud. Then they seal them up and when the eggs hatch, the baby wasp eats the paralyzed "worm". I leave them be.
Now the social wasps are another thing....I know they kill caterpillars to feed their babies, but they also kill my good caterpillars. And I have been stung too often by them while working in my garden. So they are on my list. And they do defend their nests. Whether you know it's there or not!

Wasps by my front door are just too close for comfort. I believe the dead one was a plain yellow jacket. I'm still not sure what the thread-waisted black ones were. They reminded me of military choppers. You know, those black helicopters.

Maybe they thought that me trying to unlock my door was a threat.

The exterminator is coming back out to do inside and out on the 21st. Maybe after then I can go into my garage and find my winter clothing.