Wasps construct intricate and diverse nests, essential for their survival and colony propagation. These structures provide protective shelters for raising young and housing the colony. The methods and materials they use reveal complex behaviors, allowing wasps to thrive in various environments.
Raw Materials and Their Preparation
Social wasps construct nests from wood fibers, transforming them into a paper-like pulp. They gather these fibers by scraping weathered wood (e.g., fences, logs, cardboard) using their mandibles. This material is chewed and mixed with saliva, which contains binding proteins, creating a malleable, quick-drying paste.
As this pulp dries, it forms a durable, water-resistant paper for the nest’s walls. Solitary wasps, like mud daubers and potter wasps, use different materials, often gathering mud and mixing it with saliva for their distinctive nests.
Diverse Nest Architectures
Wasp nests vary widely in architectural style. Social wasps (e.g., yellow jackets, hornets, paper wasps) build elaborate paper structures. These nests often feature multiple layers of hexagonal cells for rearing young, often encased within an outer envelope.
Social Wasp Nests
Paper wasps construct umbrella-shaped nests suspended from sheltered locations. Hornets build large, football-shaped nests hanging from tree branches. Yellow jackets often create nests in hidden cavities, such as underground burrows or wall voids.
Solitary Wasp Nests
Solitary wasps have simpler nesting habits. Mud daubers build mud nests, forming tube-like or cylindrical structures. These nests consist of individual cells, each provisioned for a single larva. Potter wasps create distinctive vase-shaped mud nests, housing a single egg and its food supply. Some solitary species, like digger wasps, excavate ground burrows.
The Wasp’s Construction Process
Social Wasp Construction
Social wasp nest construction begins in spring with a single queen. She selects a sheltered location and forms a small stalk, or pedicel, to anchor the nest. Around this stalk, the queen builds the first hexagonal cells and lays an egg in each. As the first worker wasps emerge, they take over nest building and foraging, allowing the queen to focus on egg-laying.
Worker wasps expand the comb by adding cells and enlarging the outer envelope as the colony grows. This ensures adequate space for developing larvae.
Solitary Wasp Construction
Solitary wasps have a different process; a female builds a single nest or a series of individual cells. For example, a mud dauber gathers mud, shapes cells, provisions each with paralyzed prey, lays an egg, and seals the cell before building another.
Seasonal Nest Dynamics
Most social wasp nests have an annual life cycle in temperate climates. A single overwintered queen starts a new nest in spring. The colony grows rapidly through summer, with worker wasps expanding the nest to accommodate the growing population. By late summer or early autumn, the nest reaches its maximum size, sometimes housing thousands of individuals.
As cooler weather arrives in late fall, the colony declines, and the nest is abandoned. Wasps do not reuse old nests; new queens hibernate and start new nests the following spring. This annual cycle contrasts with some perennial tropical wasp colonies, which can persist for multiple years. Solitary wasp nests, designed for individual offspring, are single-use structures completed and left by the adult wasp once young are provisioned.