Wasps come from the same family as the dragonfly, ant and bee and have adapted very well to their environment. Every spring after hibernation the queen sets about building her nest. First she finds a sheltered place to hang her nest, perhaps in a garden shed. She begins by chewing up dead or flaky wood into a pulp and moulds it into a sphere the size of a golf ball. Here she lays the first of her eggs. These are the first workers of her new colony. The queen feeds the newborn with small insects like green fly, caterpillars and anything else she can catch. The queen herself feeds from the sweet saliva produced from the larvae. When they are old enough, they will continue to build the nest and feed the newly hatched allowing the queen time to concentrate on building up the new colony.
All the workers are in fact females and instead of an ovipositor (used for laying eggs in most insects) they have a sting. According to myth a wasp can only sting once, but they can in reality sting many times. The workers like the queen feed on the saliva of the young. Each generation of wasp only lives for about six weeks.
Before the end of the summer the queen produces males who are sting less and they go out and mate with other potential queens. As the summer ends, the queen stops producing young so the workers have to find a new source of food. They search for sweet things and this is when they become a pest entering our homes occasionally. At this stage the last of the colony is dying off and only the new queens survive hiding away in hibernation till next year.
All the workers are in fact females and instead of an ovipositor (used for laying eggs in most insects) they have a sting. According to myth a wasp can only sting once, but they can in reality sting many times. The workers like the queen feed on the saliva of the young. Each generation of wasp only lives for about six weeks.
Before the end of the summer the queen produces males who are sting less and they go out and mate with other potential queens. As the summer ends, the queen stops producing young so the workers have to find a new source of food. They search for sweet things and this is when they become a pest entering our homes occasionally. At this stage the last of the colony is dying off and only the new queens survive hiding away in hibernation till next year.
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