# Wasps

*Sphex, Polistes and others*

Unglamorous, disliked, and among the most effective milkweed pollinators there are.

## What it does on milkweed

The great golden digger wasp, thread-waisted wasps and paper wasps all work milkweed heavily for nectar, and their long legs are well suited to the flower’s slot-and-clip mechanism. Studies of who actually moves milkweed pollen tend to put wasps and bumble bees at the top and honey bees a long way down.

## How to recognize it

Great golden digger wasps are large, black and orange with golden hair on the thorax. Paper wasps are slimmer, brown or black with yellow markings, and hang their legs in flight.

## Where and when

Throughout the United States.

## Should you do anything about it?

Leave them to it. Wasps at flowers are foraging, not defending a nest, and are not interested in you.

### Are wasps good pollinators of milkweed?

Yes, among the best. Milkweed pollination needs an insect strong enough to pull the pollen sacs free, and large wasps do it more reliably than most bees.

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Source: https://milkweedusa.com/wildlife/wasps-on-milkweed/ — Milkweed USA, CC BY 4.0.