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No amount of explaining wasps’ role in the order of things or the ecological services they provide will make anyone want the nest of a social wasp along a walkway, under the porch eaves or in any high-traffic area.

Like any other social wasp, they will defend their nest if the colony is disrupted.

Social wasp nests are constructed from wood fibres collected and then mixed with water by industrious wasp workers to make a kind of papier maché capable of producing very strong and long-lasting structures.

Polybia paulista is an aggressive social wasp endemic in south-east Brazil.

One day last September the writer picked up a nest of the common social wasp, Polistes, which had been detached from its support, and placed it upon his desk.