A Pictorial Guide to Cavity Nesting Wasps of Portland

A Pictorial Guide to Cavity Nesting Wasps of Portland Morgan McAllister, Stefanie Steele, Susan E. Masta Portland State University The recent focus on pollinator declines along with community educational outreach has ignited support for pollinator conservation among the public. Public response includes an increase in conscious gardening, planting of native flora, reduction of pesticides in home gardens, and supplying nesting resources such as cavity nesting boxes in support of pollinators, with a focus on bees. However, cavity nesting resources are shared by solitary bees, wasps that parasitize them, and solitary wasps. It is important to educate the public about the presence and importance of these wasps that co-inhabit the nesting cavities that were installed for bees. Expanding the work of graduate student Stefanie Steele’s survey of bee preferences for nesting cavities in the Portland Metro Area, this study seeks to identify the wasps that co-inhabit these nesting boxes as well their preference of cavity size. Wasps that were reared and emerged from nesting boxes in 2019 were photographed and identified. We found over 6 families of wasps were present among the over 300 wasps recovered. From these, we have created a pictorial key for the wasps we found in these nesting boxes