A queen wasp is the fertile female responsible for initiating and maintaining a wasp colony, laying all the eggs that produce the colony’s workers and future reproductives. A common question concerns whether these queens ever leave their nests. The answer varies depending on the stage of the colony’s life cycle and the queen’s role within it.
The Queen’s Initial Nesting Behavior
After emerging from hibernation in early spring, a solitary queen wasp begins establishing a new colony. She seeks a sheltered, dry location for her nest, such as attics, sheds, wall cavities, or disused rodent burrows. During this solitary phase, the queen is responsible for all tasks, including foraging and building.
She chews wood fibers, mixing them with saliva to create a paper-like pulp for the initial nest comb. The queen lays her first batch of eggs in these cells. Before workers emerge, she frequently leaves the nest to collect wood pulp, hunt insects for her larvae, and gather nectar for herself. This early foraging is essential, as the queen alone provides for the brood.
Queen’s Presence During Colony Growth
Once the first generation of worker wasps emerges, typically sterile females, the queen’s behavior within the nest shifts. These workers take over most external duties, including foraging, collecting building materials, expanding the nest, and caring for broods. With workers handling these tasks, the queen’s primary role becomes almost exclusively egg-laying.
The queen remains largely confined to the nest, continuously laying eggs to ensure the colony’s expansion throughout warmer months. This allows the colony to grow rapidly, potentially housing thousands of wasps by late summer. Her presence and pheromones also help maintain social order and suppress worker reproductive development. For most of the active season, the queen rarely leaves the nest.
Why a Queen Might Depart
While a queen wasp generally remains within the nest during the peak season, she will depart under specific circumstances. One such instance is in spring, when the founding queen must leave the nest repeatedly for foraging and nest construction before workers emerge.
A significant departure occurs at the end of the season when new queens, known as gynes, are produced. These new queens leave their natal nest to find mates and then seek sheltered locations, such as hollow logs, attics, or wall cavities, to hibernate over winter. The old nest is abandoned and will not be reused. In rare cases, extreme disturbance or destruction of a nest could force a queen to abandon it, though this often leads to the colony’s demise.
The Colony Without a Queen
The queen wasp’s presence is vital for a colony’s functioning and survival. If the queen dies or is permanently removed during the active season, the colony faces significant disruption. Without her to lay new eggs, worker production ceases, leading to an eventual population decline.
The absence of the queen’s pheromones, which inhibit worker reproduction, can cause some workers to develop ovaries and lay unfertilized eggs. These eggs typically develop into male wasps. However, since no new female workers are produced, the colony’s workforce dwindles and becomes disorganized, leading to its collapse. The colony will not produce new queens mid-season to replace a lost queen.