This blog summarises the lifecycle of a wasp across the four seasons, explaining how and why their behaviour changes at each stage.
The Lifecycle of a Wasp
Spring
In early Spring, fertilised females emerge as the next generation of queen wasps. Each queen searches for a suitable nesting site and begins constructing a small nest by chewing plant fibres into a paper-like material.
Although old wasp nests can survive the winter, they are never reused.
Once the nest is established, the queen lays her first eggs, which develop into infertile female worker wasps. As the workers mature, they expand the nest, gather food, and care for the developing brood.
At this stage, the colony is small, and wasps are rarely noticed by people, as most activity is focused on hunting insects to feed the growing larvae.
Early Summer
As summer begins, the colony continues to grow steadily in size. The queen remains inside the nest laying eggs while worker wasps take on all outside tasks, including food collection.
Workers hunt flies, caterpillars, and other insects, which are chewed into a protein-rich food for the developing larvae. In return, the larvae produce a sugary liquid that feeds the adult wasps.
During this stage, wasps play an important role in controlling other insect populations, and unless they are within a home, they are generally not considered a nuisance.
Late Summer
By late summer, the colony reaches its peak size, sometimes containing several thousand workers. At this point, the queen stops producing workers and begins producing the next generation of reproductive wasps — males and new queens.
As fewer larvae are present in the nest, the workers lose their internal source of sugar and begin searching for alternative sources outside of the nest. This is when wasps are more commonly seen around fruit, sweet drinks and outdoor dining areas, and start to become troublesome.
Autumn
In early Autumn, the newly produced male and female wasps leave the nest to mate. After mating, the males die while the fertilised females seek sheltered locations where they will hibernate over the winter.
Meanwhile, the original colony begins to decline, and food becomes scarce. Therefore, the remaining workers can become even more persistent and troublesome in their search for sugary foods.
Winter
A wasp colony only survives for one season. As temperatures fall and winter arrives, the old queen and the remaining workers die off.
Only the newly fertilised queens survive the winter, lying dormant until warmer weather returns and the lifecycle begins again in spring.