Wasps are sociable insects, living in vast colonies of up to 10,000 workers that build nests in trees, buildings and old animal burrows<\/a>.<\/p>\n Love them or loathe them, wasps are a fascinating and hardworking species to watch. Queen wasps hibernate in the winter before emerging in spring to build nests and lay eggs. The workers in the colony will later take over the nest building duties and collect food for the growing larvae in the spring<\/a> and summer<\/a> months.<\/p>\n Our guide to wasps looks at common wasp species found in the UK, their lifecycle and why wasps tend to sting in autumn<\/a>.<\/p>\n Far from being a malicious pest looking to ruin your picnic, the female wasp is completely focused on collecting wood pulp to expand her mother\u2019s nest. It\u2019s a labour of genetic love \u2013 the harder she works, the more wasps her mother\u2019s nest will produce, and the more of her genes will be passed on to the next generation. Female wasps tend to be larger than male as they carry the eggs.<\/span><\/p>\n Related content<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> The most commonly found wasp in the UK is the yellowjacket (Vespula vulgaris<\/i>), the black and stripy species you often find yourself swatting away. The reputation of this and a few other species has tarred that of another 200,000. Indeed, wasps are second only to beetles in terms of species numbers and there are thought to be at least 100,000 more waiting to be discovered. <\/span><\/p>\n Social wasps (that includes our stripy friend) represent less than 1% of the total wasp species in the world. And most aren\u2019t yellow and stripy or fond of picnics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The vast majority of described wasps are tiny black insects that you\u2019d probably mistake for flies. In fact, the smallest insect in the world is a wasp: the \u2018fairyfly\u2019 is a mere 0.14mm long and only lives for a few days. Despite its size, it plays a vital role in agriculture, as it lays its eggs in the bodies of crop pests, essentially working as an alternative to chemical pesticides.<\/span><\/p>\n As predators, they\u2019re at the top of the food chain and without them food webs would break down. They help to keep other invertebrate populations, such as spiders, woodlice, and insects, in check.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n They\u2019re also generalists: wasps will feed on whatever\u2019s around. They eat the most abundant pests that we try to control with toxic chemicals \u2013 there\u2019d be many more aphids in my garden without wasps. We don\u2019t have good data on how much wasps eat, but a single colony \u00a0is thought to remove somewhere between 0.16-23kg of prey per season. Using a modest estimate, that amounts to about 250,000 aphids from each colony.<\/span><\/p>\n Like a number of other insects<\/a> such as butterflies<\/a>, moths<\/a> and flies, wasps are also pollinators<\/a> of flowers and crops. Adult wasps don\u2019t need much protein (the bugs they prey on are for the developing brood in the nest) but they do need sugar, which they get in the form of nectar from flowers. In the process of finding it, \u00a0the wasps pick up and transfer pollen from flower to flower. Unlike many bees<\/a>, wasps don\u2019t mind what flowers they visit \u2013 as generalist pollinators they\u2019re more abundant than bees in degraded or fragmented habitats and so are important \u2018back-up\u2019 pollinators in these areas.<\/span><\/p>\n Wasps have a fascinating social life. A yellowjacket colony is much like that of a honeybee, with a queen supported by a community of workers. It sounds harmonious but look closer and you\u2019ll see a veritable Game of Thrones<\/i> in full swing. The parallels with human societies are uncanny: there are specialist work forces, rebellions, policing, leadership contests, undertakers, police, even free-loaders and anti-social thugs. You name it, social wasps have it.<\/span><\/p>\n The lives of social wasps revolve around gene-sharing (or relatedness). Worker wasps are \u2018self-sacrificers\u2019, they have evolved to work rather than reproduce because their genes are passed on through the brood they help rear (their siblings). <\/span><\/p>\n But this social contract is only a good deal if their mother is singly mated. Queen wasps only have one mating flight in their lives, but during that time some species mate with several males: they store the sperm \u00a0in their abdomen and control its release to fertilise the eggs they lay throughout their lives.<\/span><\/p>\n Multiple mating means the queen dilutes the relatedness of the workers in her brood and workers end up rearing a mix of half- and full-siblings, which can break the social contract of the colony. In these cases, workers can do better, individually, if they lay their own eggs. And this is when things get messy: sneaky egg laying by workers can cause a colony\u2019s cohesion to break down, creating internal battles among the workers. They may be bloodless battles, as no insect blood (haemolymph) is shed, but they\u2019re fought by ruthless means: workers that detect another worker\u2019s eggs will eat them before they hatch. <\/span><\/p>\n But aren\u2019t we taught in schools that only queens lay eggs? In fact, workers in almost all Hymenoptera (bee, wasp and ant) colonies can lay eggs. Because of a genetic quirk of the Hymenoptera, females hatch from fertilised eggs and males from unfertilised eggs. Worker wasps have lost the ability to mate, but can still lay male (unfertilised) eggs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There are other reasons to admire wasps. For one thing, they may be indirectly responsible for the invention of paper. Around 2,000 years ago a Chinese eunuch called Cai Lun noticed a wasp building a paper nest in his garden. Inspired by what he saw, he started to mulch wood and with it made the first paper. If the story is true, then perhaps we have wasps to thank for much of our rich cultural history and development. <\/span><\/p>\n Fast forward to today where exciting research is looking into the potential use of wasp venom as a cancer therapy. An active peptide found in the venom of tropical social wasps selectively destroys cancerous cells by causing their membranes to leak. Wasps may have the potential to save human lives.<\/span><\/p>\n A better appreciation of the ecological, economic, medical and cultural services that our stripy friends provide might help us see them in a different light. So next time your picnic is disturbed by black and yellow insects, take a moment to think about their extraordinary world and the contributions they make to our lives before you reach for the swatter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n More related content:<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> A single-mated queen emerges from winter hibernation in the early spring. Her workers build a nest in a cavity in the ground or a tree, and only after the nest is fully established will she build each cell and lay an egg in it. After about 30 days, her first offspring \u2013 the workers \u2013 emerge as adults. They\u2019re all female at this point. The workers takeover the foraging, brood care and nest building and maintenance duties; the queen becomes a stay-at-home egg-laying machine.<\/p>\n After a few days carnivorous larvae will hatch from the newest eggs. The adult workers bring insects back to the nest to feed to the hungry larvae, which offer a sugary reward to the workers, via a process called trophallaxis. The larvae grow over a couple \u2028of weeks before they spin their pupal cap and pupate. Over the next couple of months, the colony will grow, possibly to include thousands of wasps, depending on the species. Once the colony is big enough, the queen will switch to laying a sexual brood: these are males and the sexual females capable of becoming next year\u2019s queens. When the sexual brood emerges, they leave the nest to mate and then find somewhere to hibernate over the winter (lofts are a popular choice). After this point, the nest has served its purpose but the workers are still alive with no brood to feed \u2013 this is when they start to bother you.<\/p>\n In the UK there are approximately 9,000 species of wasp. This includes larger wasps species that sting and microscopic parasitic wasps that can\u2019t be seen with the naked eye. Here are some of the most common wasp species found in Britain.<\/p>\n These are the wasps most likely to upset your picnic. V. germanica<\/em> tends to be more bad tempered than V. vulgaris<\/em>. These two species are practically identical but you can tell them apart by their facial and thorax markings. Both species have a single queen who produces 6,000 to 10,000 workers. They make football-sized nests in the ground or in roofs and trees.<\/p>\n The European hornet is about twice the size of the other social wasps but despite its looks is unlikely to bother you at picnics. Hornet colonies have a single queen and around 100 workers. They like to nest in tree cavities or bird boxes.<\/p>\n![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/22\/2018\/10\/Wasps-on-apple-ed7dded.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C401"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>How do you know if a wasp is male or female?<\/h2>\n
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<\/div><\/div> <\/div> <\/section>What is the most common wasp species found in the UK?<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>How do wasps help wildlife?<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>How do wasps reproduce?<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>How can wasps help humans?<\/h2>\n
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<\/div><\/div> <\/div> <\/section>The lifecycle of social wasps<\/h2>\n
The queen wasp emerges from hibernation<\/h3>\n<\/div>
Her offspring emerge<\/h3>\n<\/div>
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Larvae hatch<\/h3>\n<\/div>
The colony grows<\/h3>\n<\/div>
Wasps mature and leave the nest<\/h3>\n<\/div>
How many wasp species are found in the UK?<\/h2>\n
Common\/German wasp<\/span>\u00a0(Vespula vulgaris\/germanica<\/em>)<\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>European hornet (Vespa crabro<\/em>)<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/22\/2018\/10\/IH85-Hornet-male-Vespa-crabro-76cc493.jpg?quality=90&resize=500%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Yellow-legged Asian hornet\u00a0(Vespa velutina<\/em>)<\/span><\/h3>\n