Today, as the temperature hovered around -7°C and the visibility over the Lake dropped to zero in blowing snow (first picture), I was visited by—gulp—a wasp (second picture).
The only wasps which live through the winter around here are queens. This one is a Golden Paper Wasp (Polistes aurifer). I have seen them before when the outside temperature plummets in the winter and the conditions in my home are confused with springtime. Mind you, it did appear a tad dopey. Maybe it will go back to sleep and later present me with family to admire.
The Kootenay-Lake Website offers a discussion and more pictures of local social wasps.
The conditions outside when a wasp stopped by for a visit—unfit for man or wasp
This Golden Paper Wasp queen (Polistes aurifer) seemed to prefer my home to outdoors
