The German wasp has a head shield with three black spots, while the common wasp you can tell from the vertical line on its head shield. The common wasp's body is a little more pointed than the German wasp's. Its yellow colouring is not so vivid, and the body is less shiny than the German wasp's.
Wasps live in nests made of a paper-like mass.
The nests are only used for a year, and most of the insects die in October. Only the queens can survive through the winter, and this is why wasps are rare in spring. Most of the queen's eggs develop into worker wasps, which can then become real pests in the late summer and autumn. It is important to realise that wasps themselves also catch plenty of insects, in particular harmful ones, and feed them to their larvae. A wasp colony can destroy up to two kilograms of insects per day.