Did You Know That Wasps Do Not Use the Same Nest Every Year?

During winter, did you know that wasps do not use the same nest every year? The nest is built from scratch every year. It is made of wood fibers mixed with saliva.

After winter, the queen wasp returns to the nest and starts building a new one. She lays eggs in the new nest cells. These eggs hatch into young wasps. The young wasps continue building the nest throughout the summer. In the fall, the nest is abandoned.

Social wasps like to build nests in caves, hollow trees, or manmade structures. Their nests are made of wood and pulped pulp. The nest is shaped like a spherical ball.

A queen wasp will hibernate in the nest over the winter months. She will emerge from hibernation in the spring to lay eggs and begin building a new nest. The queen spends the rest of her life in the nest as an egg-laying machine. Her limited food supply could starve her to death if she has no food source.

The nests vary in size and shape. Some nests are made of papery pulp, while others are made of a hard, spherical material. These nests can hold up to 10,000 wasps at their peak.

Some of the wasps are territorial, avoiding nests that are close to their nest. Other species, such as the western yellow jacket, are perennial nests that are used year after year.

Wasps and hornets build nests out of chewed pulped wood. The nests are finished with a papery coating.