Pictured here is a red paper wasp, one of 22 species of paper wasps known to exist in North America. Paper wasps are so called because they build paper nests. I once observed one carefully cutting ...

In terms of popularity, wasps sit somewhere between house centipedes and mosquitos in regards to universal desire for their demise — so the prospect that they can identify faces is pretty horrifying.

Paper wasps have a nasty reputation for their ability to deliver a painful sting multiple times, sometimes even in groups, but as a whole the species is beneficial to humans as predators of other ...