The bald-faced hornet, scientifically known as Dolichovespula maculata, is not a true hornet but rather a large species of aerial yellowjacket, distinguished by its black body and ivory-white markings. This social insect lives in a highly organized colony, and the answer to whether it has a queen is unequivocally yes. The queen is the sole reproductive female and the founder of the entire colony structure. The presence of this single reproductive female dictates the entire annual life cycle and the division of labor within the nest.
The Queen’s Exclusive Role
The bald-faced hornet queen is the largest individual in the colony, typically measuring up to three-quarters of an inch in length. Her primary function is reproduction, and she is the only member of the colony to survive the winter, entering a state of dormancy in protected places like under bark or in rock piles. She emerges in the spring already fertilized, having mated the previous fall, and carries the stored sperm she will use for the season.
When she first awakens, the queen acts as a solitary wasp, foraging for materials and beginning the construction of the initial paper nest. She chews wood fibers, mixing them with her saliva to create a paste, which dries into the characteristic gray, papery material of the nest. She lays her first clutch of eggs, which she tends and feeds until they mature into the first generation of sterile female workers. Once these workers are mature, the queen’s sole responsibility shifts to egg-laying, often producing hundreds of eggs daily.
The Annual Life Cycle of the Colony
The colony’s existence is a temporal structure that unfolds over a single season, beginning with the queen’s solitary founding phase in the spring. She selects a sheltered location and constructs a small, golf-ball-sized nest containing the first few brood cells. This initial phase is slow, as the queen must perform all duties—nest building, foraging, and larval care—by herself.
The rapid growth phase begins in the early summer when the first cohort of workers emerges and assumes all non-reproductive tasks. The nest expands quickly, eventually growing into a large, football-shaped structure that may contain a peak population of up to 400 individuals, though some estimates suggest up to 1,000. As the season progresses into late summer and fall, the queen lays a new batch of eggs that develop into reproductive individuals: new potential queens and males (drones).
The males and new queens leave the nest to mate. The newly fertilized queens seek sheltered spots to hibernate and begin the cycle again the following spring. The dissolution phase follows quickly; the old queen, all workers, and the males die with the onset of cold weather. The nest is not reused, and the colony ceases to exist until a new queen founds a new one months later.
The Roles of Workers and Males
The majority of the bald-faced hornet population consists of workers, which are non-reproductive, sterile females. Workers maintain the colony’s growth and defense throughout the summer. They are responsible for all foraging activities, collecting materials like wood pulp for nest enlargement and various insects for larval consumption.
Workers also manage the intricate structure of the nest, which can have multiple internal tiers of paper comb protected by a multi-layered outer shell. The size and complexity of the nest directly correlate with the size and vigor of the worker population. Workers are highly protective of the nest and will aggressively defend the colony from perceived threats, using their smooth stingers to sting repeatedly.
The males, or drones, are produced toward the end of the season from unfertilized eggs and serve only one purpose: to mate with the new potential queens. They are generally short-lived, dying shortly after mating in the fall. The presence of males signals the end of the annual colony cycle and the preparation for the next generation of sole-surviving queens.