Wasps nests this year
Wasps can be regarded as beneficial insects during the spring and early summer as workers collect insect larvae, which helps control garden insect pests. However, at their peak in August and September with the youngsters reared, the workers turn to the sweet food they prefer and become a nuisance wherever this is available.
It is the ability of wasps to cause painful stings that concerns most people and unlike bees, wasp can sting several times. A single queen wasp begins construction on a nest in early spring, which may eventually house more than 500 adult’s wasps. The queen starts this process by laying up to eight eggs in a small comb protected by several layers of papery material. The queen produces this by foraging for wood fibers which she chews and combines with saliva, to will form new papery layers of the nest.
After four to six weeks the initial workers hatch and continue construction on the nest while the queen continues to lay eggs and increase the wasp population. By the end of the summer, a large nest will have been formed containing male and female workers, together with a number of specially nurtured new queens.
One nest may produce 30,000 wasps in a year. With the onset of severe weather around October the nest dies out and unlike bees, this will not be reused in the future. Once the queens have exited the dying nest they find a location to hibernate over winter often in warm undisturbed places like garden sheds, loft spaces, cellars, under loose bark and even unused bird boxes. The queens emerge in the spring and the life cycle begins again.
You may find Queen Wasps in your loft spaces early in the season now you may find they will leave and make nests elsewhere. This is common in wasps but please feel free to contact us for more information on prevention if you suffer regularly from wasp nests overt the late summer months.
You may also like to read our Wasp Nest information page