Yellow jackets, common insects during warmer months, exhibit a unique survival strategy when winter arrives. Their approach to winter is distinct from true hibernation, relying on the survival of a select few to ensure the species continues.
The Yellow Jacket Life Cycle and Winter
Yellow jackets do not hibernate in the traditional sense, where an entire colony goes dormant. With the onset of cold weather, the vast majority of the colony perishes, including all worker wasps, males, and the old queen. As cold-blooded insects, their body temperature is heavily influenced by surroundings, making them unable to withstand prolonged extreme cold.
In most regions with distinct winters, yellow jacket nests are annual and do not survive. While a nest might persist in exceptionally mild or consistently warm climates, such as parts of Florida or Texas, this is an exception. As temperatures drop, workers become sluggish, and colony activity ceases, leading to their demise.
The Queen’s Solo Winter Survival
Only newly fertilized yellow jacket queens survive the winter. These queens seek protected, secluded locations to overwinter, often choosing sites such as under tree bark, within rotting logs, in soil cavities, or in sheltered areas of human-made structures. They enter diapause, a period of suspended development.
During diapause, the queen’s metabolic rate slows dramatically, conserving energy and allowing her to survive without food until spring. Yellow jacket queens produce “antifreeze” proteins, which prevent ice crystals from forming within their bodies, enabling them to withstand freezing conditions. Their survival hinges on finding a site with sufficient insulation from harsh winter elements.
The New Season: Colony Rebirth
When spring arrives and temperatures consistently rise, the surviving queen emerges from her overwintering site. She finds a suitable location to establish a new colony, including abandoned rodent burrows, tree cavities, or sheltered spots in buildings. The queen then constructs a small paper nest by chewing plant fibers and mixing them with saliva.
Once the initial nest is built, she lays her first batch of eggs. These eggs hatch into larvae, which the queen feeds with scavenged meat and insects. The first offspring to mature are sterile female workers. They then expand the nest, forage for food, and care for subsequent generations of larvae. This allows the queen to focus solely on laying more eggs, rapidly growing the colony throughout warmer months and restarting the annual cycle.