Polistes - Red Paper Wasp

Lillian, my dear old stalwart, caught this one in the garden today. He is quite small, but hey, dangerous!! It burns like crazy when he stings!

There are over 300 recognized species and subspecies. Their innate preferences for nest-building sites leads them to commonly build nests on human habitation, where they can be very unwelcome; although generally not aggressive, they can be provoked into defending their nests. All species are predatory, and they may consume large numbers of caterpillars, in which respect they are generally considered beneficial. Thanks to Wikipedia!

Ansa & Anrie arrived in Malaysia today, visiting her dad Jurie for 2 weeks. Eisch. Ronnie jr suffers without her by his side, she misses him just as much, the 2 of them were really very upset when Charmaine and Ronnie, with the two 'travelling girls', left for the OR Tambo Airport yesterday morning! Ronnie had to attend lectures at university and was very upset that he couldn't drive them to the airport to see them off! ;-( I truly wish Anrie and her dear mom a lovely 2 weeks with her dad, they really miss him so!