In the United States, it ranges throughout the southern Midwest, the South, and as far northeast as New York, but has recently been spotted in southwest Ontario.

[3] Like other Polistes species, P. metricus has evolved eusociality and demonstrates behaviors including nestmate discrimination and local mate competition.

In the eastern United States, one female was seen in Dryden, Maine and recorded by the Canadian Nursery Certification Institute for pest control.

[1] Specifically, P. metricus has been studied in Brazos Bend State Park in Texas along with other wasp species, including Polistes bellicosus.

[14] P. metricus chooses its nesting sites based on shelter from the elements, size, lighting, and sources of water.

The colony slowly and gradually increases in size,[8] and the average date for the first worker of the nest to emerge from its cocoon is in middle July.

[15] In July, the entire brood of workers emerges from its cocoons and this is also when the maximum rate of egg-laying of the year occurs.

At this point, reproductive females leave their nests for hibernacula, locations where they spend the winter, and all males die.

However, due to the more rapid rate of construction between June and July, vacant cells begin to appear and become more numerous.

When they wish to fly short distances, they exit the nest with a horizontal trajectory, just above the upper edges of the vegetation, and usually between 1.0 and 1.5 m above the ground level.

[7] In the summer, reproductive females (gynes) fly significantly shorter distances to forage then do their worker counterparts.

Longer flights are facilitated by the greater average size of P. metricus compared to other paper wasp species.

Since P. metricus has a longer lifespan than other wasps and engage in an exceptionally lengthy period of reproduction, it malaxates prey and consumes the protein for its metabolic needs.

During this process, solid and liquid materials from the morsel are extracted by the female and stored in her crop, from where it can be regurgitated to larvae during mouth-to-mouth trophallaxis.

Associations of co-foundresses are generally composed of half or full sisters that came from the same natal nest the previous season.

However, if one starts to observe that only males are emerging from the nest, it can be assumed that all the foundresses of the colony have died approximately 47 days earlier.

In general, foundress mortality tends to be great in the period between nest initiation and the emergence of the first brood of workers.

Birds attack the P. metricus nest by puncturing its lateral margin and removing the pupae and larger larvae.

[4] Polistes metricus is considered to be a eusocial organism, characterized by sterile castes, overlapping generations, and cooperative care for offspring.

[4] Polistes metricus has been shown to demonstrate a deviation from Fisher's prediction of a 1:1 male to female sex ratio.

Despite the equal parental investment in the sexes, the average frequency for females in Polistes metricus is approximately .55.

[29] Consequently, in colonies with a monogamous queen, females are more closely related to their sisters than to their brothers, mothers, or future offspring.

Robert A. Metcalf argues that data on the skewed sex ratios does not prove or disprove the hypothesis of parent-offspring conflict over male production and parental investment.

Metcalf's study shows that the foundresses control the production of males by restricting sperm availability to workers.

[5] The importance of haplodiploidy in terms of the evolution of eusociality was brought into question using a phylogenetic study of Polistes by Pickett et al.

The paper argues that through a phylogenetic test they found that there is little support for the idea the haplodiploidy lead to early social evolution in the genus Polistes.

Stabilizing selection is present to make a fixed number of workers regardless of nest size or food availability.

Based on these observations, the nutrient level at the larval stage tends to correlate with the reproductive ability of the larvae as it develops.

[33] Adult female Polistes use their salivary enzymes to soften wood or paper products to form a nest pedicel.

These genetically predetermined cues have been found in Lasioglossum zephrym, a species of bee at a similar social level.