Social wasps, such as yellowjackets and hornets, form complex colonies with a division of labor, a queen, and sterile female workers.

A smaller, but more conspicuous group of wasps are the social species. These include the familiar yellowjackets, hornets, and paper wasps. They live in highly organized colonies that can number in the thousands. A single queen initiates the nest, laying eggs that hatch into sterile female workers. These workers take on all the duties of the colony: foraging for food, building and maintaining the nest, caring for the young, and defending the colony. They hunt other insects to feed the developing larvae, and also forage for sugary substances for themselves.