Wasps

Where Do Wasps Go In Winter?
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Spring has finally sprung and the weather is warming up nicely
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But I haven’t spotted a wasp yet which begs the question – where do wasps go in winter? 
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Are they still in their nests, keeping warm and cosy like honey bees in a hive or have they migrated south with birds in search of food, sunshine, sandy beaches and sticky, sweet cocktails? 
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And even more importantly, when will the wasps be back?
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What do wasps do in Spring?
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From now onwards you may spot larger than normal wasps. 
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These are queen wasps emerging from their overwintering place which could be as diverse as the warm folds of a curtain, a cosy crevice in a shed or a loft. 
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The queen wasps will be on the scout for a new place to build a nest and lay their eggs. 
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You’ll certainly know it’s a queen if it stings you because only the female wasps have the distinctive stinger, which they can use repeatedly unlike bees.
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At the end of the summer season, worker wasps return to the nest and die. 
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Only the queen survives. 
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The queen will never use the old nest (probably because it’s full of dead wasps) and build a new wasp nest, creating a single cell at the end of a petiole. 
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Six more cells are then added to create the hexagonal shape.
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The queen then lays eggs which grows into small larva. 
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The larvae grows to full size then it pupates into an adult worker wasps. 
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The lifecycle from egg to fully grown insect is approximately three weeks.
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What’s inside a Wasp’s Nest?
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The worker wasps will continue to build and maintain the nest, forage for food and feed the larvae. 
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Until June the nests will normally be golf ball sized but may be larger with warm weather. 
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From late June the wasp nest will have grown considerably and wasps can normally be spotted on the outside carrying our repair and maintainance work. 
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Take a look at the amazing footage by worldofwasps showing a queen hornet and workers tending to the nest.
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There are no hard and fast rules with nature
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But please help us to map out Britain’s wasp infestations by plotting your wasp sighting at http://www.ukwaspwatch.co.uk/
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Alicia -  Rentokil