Ever wondered what life is like as a wasp?
As we head towards the peak time for wasp attacks in the UK we thought it would be interesting at to look at the life cycle of the insect.
Read on for the full lifeline of a wasp.
– The last throws of winter finally relinquish their grip and spring is upon us once more. Queen wasps start to emerge from hibernation, they look around for a nesting site and this could be in the ground or the roof space in your loft!
– Once the queen finds a suitable location she begins to build a basic nest this is normally constructed from chewed pulp mixed with saliva. During the initial basic nest build the queen creates a ‘stalk’ to contain cells in which she can lay eggs.
– Eggs develop into sterile female wasps, they become ‘workers’ that complete the building of the nest and assist with further offspring. The queen wasp continues to produce eggs and by the end of July there are thousands of workers involved in maintaining the nest and looking after larvae.
– Long after the summer and when the autumn starts to dwindle away the wasps start to make plans for next year’s colony. Larger cells are produced known as Royal Cells, they rear the queens of the future and male wasps are also produced from unfertilised eggs. The males leave the colony, they mate and the mated females lie dormant for the winter ready to start a new colony next year.
– As the queens overwinter the rest of the colony dies.
The process begins again nest spring!
As you can see, a lot happens during the life cycle of a wasp and we’re heading towards peak time for wasps activity in the UK at the moment.
If you are have a wasps nest we’re only a call away at Zest Wasp Removal – dealing with wasps nests is what we do best!