The big wasp plague doesn't come until late summer - sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker, depending on the year. Then they attack us en masse at our outdoor coffee tables with plum cake and Danish pastries. But what actually happens to the tabby stinging insects in autumn?
What happens to wasps in autumn?
In autumn, most wasps, including workers and males, die after mating and fertilizing the young queens. The surviving fertilized females remain frozen and begin to establish new wasp colonies in the spring.
The development stages of a wasp state
A wasp colony doesn't last very long overall. In the few months of their existence, the animals are basically constantly busy ensuring the continued existence of their species in the next year. The following stages are passed through:
- Foundation of the state by the Queen
- Increasing the Worker Army
- Raising the sexual animals
- Death of the animals except for new young queens
Spring Awakening – The Founding of the State
The wasp queen takes the first stage alone. In spring she looks for suitable shelter and creates the first brood chambers for the nest, in which she lays the first round of eggs. She raises the larvae that hatch from them on her own.
Raising an army of workers
Over the course of the later spring and early summer, several more generations of workers are raised - now with the help of the first developed animals.
Late summer – the time of greedy wasp workers
Finally, males and young queens are bred in late summer. At this point the wasp colony is literally buzzing. There is now a lot to do - because both the important sexual animals and the many hard-working workers have to be supplied with huge amounts of food.
Autumn Peak
The most important stage of the entire wasp cycle occurs in autumn. Drones and young queens leave the wasp nest to mate with each other from state to state. This mating act outside the nest is called nuptial flight.
Once the fertilization of the new young queens has taken place, the goal of all the previous effort has been achieved. The many thousands of workers and males have now fulfilled their target and are no longer needed. That means: they die off in the first cold days of autumn. So they have dedicated their entire existence to preserving the species for the next year.
The preservation of the species must now be carried out by the new young queens, i.e. the fertilized females. They are the only ones who don't die in the fall. They remain frozen throughout the winter, consuming hardly any energy. When spring comes, the whole process starts again.
