Where Do Wasps Go in the Winter?

Wasps are very active in the warm months, but where do they go in the winter and survive for the next season? The answer may surprise you!

#wasps #yellowjackets #yellowjacket

When temperatures drop below around 70°F (21°C), yellowjacket wasps become much less active. They have difficulty flying and will stay active in their nest. Yellowjackets are social wasps, meaning they build nests and work together instead of being solitary. Very large nests may have more than one queen laying eggs.

Most of the wasps die in freezing temperatures, but they will do what they can to survive. If the wasp colony can find a relatively warm cavity to overwinter, they will do so. We’ve found these overwintering colonies in gaps in our workshop, as well as in a stack of lumber.
It is more common to have just fertile females (queens) survive and look for places to hibernate and to be sheltered. Wasp queens hibernate in very small spaces and these produce glycerol which acts like antifreeze in their bloodstream. To conserve resources, including the need for food, overwintering wasps enter a hibernation-like state called diapause.

We’ve just described one portion of the life cycle of a wasp, and the queen wasp in particular. But, how did the queen come to exist, and how long did she live?

Let’s run the cycle “backward” so we can see how we arrived at each point in the cycle.
In the later part of the summer, or early autumn, that year’s queen or queens lay their final batch of eggs. The majority of these eggs develop into queens, able to reproduce, along with drones (sexually active male wasps) to inseminate the queens.

The old queens die off, as does most of the colony, including the drones. Inseminated queens then seek out safe spaces to overwinter.

How did the colony begin for that year? A solitary queen finds a spot for a nest, builds a small nest, and begins laying eggs. She collects insects which she feeds to the developing wasp larvae. When these become adults (usually sisters!) they take over most of the non-egg-laying functions.
Wasp eggs develop into larvae and emerge and are ready to go to work in about 30 to 50 days, depending on the weather and temperatures.

In favorable conditions and a good location, the wasp nest multiplies both in size and population. The wasps forage for proteins to feed developing larvae earlier in the season. This is why they visit outdoor BBQs and meals so often and are very persistent. They like sugars as well, particularly later in the season.

Now that you’ve seen the detail of each cycle portion and what happens before that point, let’s summarize the cycle order beginning with early spring.

In early spring, inseminated queen wasps emerge from overwintering/diastasis, find a favorable spot, and build a small nest.

Eggs are laid by the founding queen, and about 30 to 50 days later, adult wasps take over nest building and foraging. The colony grows as does the nest size.

Later in the season, the queen or queens of that nest lay eggs that develop both into sterile queens and drones. In flight, the drones inseminate the queens, and a portion of the queens overwinter to start the process again in the spring.

Most of the colony dies, including the queen(s) from the previous season.

And now you know the secret of where wasps go in the winter!