How Does Cold Weather Affect Wasps?
WouterWhether you are planning to have a summer vacation or spend the winter in the city, you should be aware of how cold weather affects wasps. Wasps are not immune to the winter cold, and their lifespan will be drastically reduced if you don’t make the effort to protect them from the elements.
When temperatures drop below 50 deg F, the metabolism of the wasps slows. This means they will not be able to fly very far. Similarly, their food supply will begin to diminish.
There is a small chance that some wasps will survive the winter, but not all. These insects have evolved strategies to help them survive cold weather. They also hide in buildings to stay warm. Some species even produce an antifreeze-like chemical to keep from freezing.
Wasps are active in spring and summer, but they become much less active in autumn and winter. They are confined to the home or the attic, and the job of foraging for food and building a nest is reduced.
In the spring, a queen wasp begins to look for a suitable place to lay eggs. These eggs hatch into young wasps. The young wasps will then begin to build their own nests. During the winter, the queen wasp will hibernate.
The wasps most likely to survive the winter are the ones that have been inseminated. These females will have their first brood in spring. In addition, there are also females that are not fertile. Eventually, these infertile females will die off as the weather gets colder.
