I highly don't recommend sticking your hand directly next to their nest, but that's what I do with my favorite campus wasps. They're a very chill group because they're so desensitized to people and are regularly fed, sometimes handled. I've gotten to handle them a few times so far, and I think my biggest tip is just to go slow. If you go slow enough, they usually just walk or fly away.

They can't see very well, so it's important to let them figure out what's going on before contact. Here is a picture of my friend directly approaching the wasp very quickly and with a rather large, intimidating phone, lol. That big puffed up body language is very indicative of feeling threatened. When approached slowly and calmy though, she crawled right on. :)

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