---
title: "German Yellowjacket"
description: "Vespula germanica — Insetti e ragni. Vespula germanica, known colloquially as the European wasp, German wasp, or German yellowjacket, is a species of wasp found in much of the Northern Hemisphere, native to Europe, Northern Africa, and temperate Asia."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/it/animal/german-yellowjacket
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# German Yellowjacket

> Vespula germanica — Insetti e ragni. Vespula germanica, known colloquially as the European wasp, German wasp, or German yellowjacket, is a species of wasp found in much of the Northern Hemisphere, native to Europe, Northern Africa, and temperate Asia.

- Scientific name: *Vespula germanica*
- Category: `insects` (Insetti e ragni)
- Habitats: `urban` (Città e giardini)
- iNaturalist observations: 50447
- Wikidata: [Q1130274](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1130274)
- iNaturalist taxon: [126155](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/126155)

## Names

- en: German Yellowjacket
- de: Deutsche Wespe
- es: Avispa germánica
- fr: Guêpe germanique
- nl: Duitse wesp
- pl: Osa dachowa

## Countries with the most observations

US (9361), CA (5377), DE (3891), AU (3410), GB (3172), ES (2016), FR (1743), IT (1499), NZ (1165), AT (1032), RU (952), PT (853)

## Summary

Vespula germanica, known colloquially as the European wasp, German wasp, or German yellowjacket, is a species of wasp found in much of the Northern Hemisphere, native to Europe, Northern Africa, and temperate Asia. It has spread and become well-established in many other places, including North America, South America (Argentina and Chile), Australia, South Africa,  and New Zealand. German wasps are part of the family Vespidae and are sometimes mistakenly referred to as paper wasps because they build grey paper nests, although strictly speaking, paper wasps are part of the subfamily Polistinae. In North America, they…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vespula_germanica

## Photo

![German Yellowjacket](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/german-yellowjacket/medium.jpg)

Photo: Emily Langdon-Lassagne · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/197783766

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/german-yellowjacket?lang=it` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).