A vespiary is a complex structure built by certain insects, serving as a dynamic habitat for social colonies. Understanding these dwellings offers insight into the lives of their builders.
Defining a Vespiary
A vespiary is a nest of social wasps. This term applies to communal dwellings constructed by various species of social wasps, including hornets and yellow jackets, which belong to the Vespidae family. Unlike solitary wasps that build individual nests, social wasps collaborate to create these larger, complex structures. The Latin root “vespa,” meaning wasp, gives the vespiary its name.
Architecture and Materials
Vespiaries are constructed from a paper-like material created by wasps and hornets. This material is formed by chewing wood fibers, often sourced from dead wood, fence panels, or garden furniture, and mixing them with saliva. The saliva acts as a binder, transforming the wood pulp into a pliable paste that hardens into a sturdy, waterproof substance. This process is similar to how paper is manufactured.
The queen initiates construction by building a small structure, often starting with a singular stalk called a petiole that anchors the nest. She then crafts hexagonal cells around this foundation. As the colony grows, worker wasps take over, expanding the nest by adding more layers of these six-sided cells, which are structurally efficient for space and material. The external appearance of a vespiary varies by species, ranging from umbrella-shaped to large, enclosed football-shaped structures, typically with a single entrance at the bottom.
Life Cycle and Purpose
The life cycle of a vespiary colony begins in early spring when a single fertilized queen emerges from winter hibernation. She seeks a sheltered location, such as a tree branch, attic, or wall cavity, to start the new nest. The queen independently builds the initial cells and lays her first batch of eggs within them. These eggs hatch into larvae, which the queen feeds until they develop into adult worker wasps, typically sterile females.
Once the first generation of worker wasps matures, they assume the responsibilities of nest expansion, foraging for food, and caring for subsequent broods. This allows the queen to focus solely on laying eggs, rapidly increasing the colony’s size. By late summer, a mature vespiary can house hundreds to thousands of individuals, with some reaching peak populations of 5,000 to 10,000 wasps.
The primary purpose of the vespiary is to provide a secure, controlled environment for the colony’s growth and the protection of the developing young, from eggs to larvae and pupae. In late summer, the queen produces new queens and males (drones), which leave the nest to mate. As temperatures drop in late fall, the colony declines, and only the newly fertilized queens typically survive to hibernate and begin new vespiaries the following spring.