Wasps
Key
Features of Wasps
Wasps are very well known. These conspicuous buzzing insects have yellow and black striped, wasp-waisted bodies, approximately 10-15mm long. They have a sweet tooth at one end and a painful sting at the other.
Biology
The queen wasp is approximately 20mm in length.
She hibernates over winter, making a nest in the spring in which to lay her eggs. She feeds the grubs on insects until they develop into worker wasps, three to four weeks later.
Workers, all sterile females, forage for over a mile in search of food. One nest may produce 30,000 wasps in a year. At their peak in August and September, with the youngsters reared, the workers turn to the sweet food they prefer and become a nuisance wherever this is available.
There are two species of wasp native to the UK. However there have also been several other European species recorded here. Wasp nests may be suspended from trees, nest boxes, bee hives, rafters and dormer windows.
