How wasps reproduce, life cycle, how long they live

Species diversity

The varieties of these thin-waisted insects are surprising in their heterogeneity. After all, besides the classic striped wasp, which flies everywhere and doesn’t seem to be afraid of anyone, there are other species. Some of them are not very similar to their counterparts.

Wasps in Russia are no less diverse than similar insects in other regions. It is not possible to describe all types here, but typical and unusual types can be:

Flower wasp. This solitary insect leads the lifestyle of a bee. Representatives of this group are very small in size - no more than 1 cm. This insect is colored like a typical black and yellow wasp. The flower wasp got its name because it feeds on pollen and nectar. She even has a long proboscis, which is so convenient for drinking nectar. However, this wasp does not carry pollen on legs, like bees, but in the crop.
Sand wasps. These insects got their name based on their lifestyle. They dig their burrows in the ground, mostly sandy. All burrowing insects are characterized by the presence of a large head and hypertrophied jaws. Sand wasps are no exception. They look scary, but their danger to humans is not great. It is practically a black wasp and only the abdomen has yellow or grayish stripes. For their ability to deliver precise blows to an enemy larger than them, these wasps are commonly called cicada killers.
German wasp, or German wasp. They are sometimes confused with ants because the female wasps do not have wings. Because of this terrestrial lifestyle, German women are sometimes called velvet ants. This name is due to the fact that the body of females is covered with hairs, which evokes an association with velvet. These wasps also differ in color - they are bright red with black spots. This is also a kind of warning coloring, because these insects also have poison. However, the male is predominantly black or brown with red spots. These wasps invade other people's burrows, laying their eggs there. The hatched larvae feed on the host's eggs. After leaving the nest, they drink nectar from flowers or juice from insect corpses. So the dark wasp on the flower is a male or a young female.

There is also a species called the wasp fly. In fact, it is really a fly, but it is colored like a wasp or a bee. This cunning fly can be distinguished by the absence of a thin waist. In addition, she has only two pairs of wings, which is a typical fly feature. So this fly does not have the structure of a wasp, it mimics only the color of its body.

Otherwise, this fly is called a hoverfly. This insect received this name for the characteristic murmuring sound made by its wings while hovering over a flower. These flies feed on pollen and nectar. They have no poison, but the birds don’t touch them because they don’t understand entomology at all. This wasp-like fly enjoys all the benefits of stinging insects, which is also beneficial for plants, since the hoverfly is a good pollinator.

Why are earthworms useful?

Earthworms are one of the most useful living creatures on the planet. Despite their unpleasant appearance, they are completely harmless, and their numerous populations make a huge contribution to the growth and development of all flora in the world.

Worms are real orderlies and healers for the soil. The main benefits of these animals are as follows:

enrichment of soil with useful substances and microelements;
disinfection and deodorization of soil;
restoration of fertile soil layer;
accelerating the processes of decay of plant residues;
loosening the soil;
vermicompost production;
promoting the colonization of beneficial microorganisms in the soil.

Where does the wasp live?

Representatives of wasps are widespread throughout the world. They can easily be found in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Europe, Africa, Argentina, Canada, Mexico, Australia, China, Japan. Such animals do not live only in the hot Sahara, the Arctic and the Arabian Peninsula. Wasps prefer a temperate climate and cannot exist in regions that are too hot or too frosty.

Interesting fact: A very dangerous species of wasp lives in Japan and China - the Asian hornet. Its size can reach six centimeters. One bite of such an insect is quite enough to kill a person, especially if he is allergic. According to statistics, up to fifty people die every year from the sting of the Asian hornet in these countries.

Most representatives of wasps live in the Northern Hemisphere. Only a small population can be found in Brazil. These insects choose their habitat according to several criteria: temperate climate, presence of trees, humans. The thing is that the human habitat makes it easier for wasps to get their food. The tree is used for building nests and raising larvae. Some individuals build homes from clay and pebbles. Their nests look very much like small castles.

Role in nature

Why are bees so useful?

the only insect that obtains food not only for itself, but for people;
They produce exceptionally healthy honey because, unlike wasps, they do not collect nectar from poisonous plants.

There is only one unpleasant moment in dealing with these stinging creatures - the bite is painful and causes allergies.

The benefits of their activities in the ecosystem cannot be overestimated. In Europe alone, more than 4,000 varieties of vegetables depend on insect pollination. Several types of insects are responsible for pollinating one plant - honey bee, wild bee, bumblebee. This is why preserving species diversity in nature is so important.

About 100 plant species provide 90 percent of the world's food supply, and 80-90 percent of the pollination of these plants is carried out by bees. It is important to understand how insects benefit plants by collecting nectar. The conservation of melliferous species is becoming increasingly important due to the widespread chemicalization of agriculture and general environmental pollution.

It is known what benefits bees bring to humans. These hymenoptera provide people with useful natural products, such as honey (healing for the human body), pollen, propolis, and royal jelly. Beeswax is used to make scented candles, cosmetics, and medicines. But the benefits to the economy are much more important. Even if none of these products are obtained, the agricultural benefits are critical because they pollinate crops. A number of insecticidal crops depend on pollination, such as rapeseed, which increases seed production with additional pollination.

What kind of homes do wasps have?

An example of a social wasp's nest is the home of hornets, the largest stinging insects of the suborder Stem-bellied. The whole process begins with one uterus. Its task is to create a small ball where nests could be made for several working individuals.

First, the uterus creates one layer, moving from the center to the periphery. Under this layer she makes a leg to which several cells are attached. Eggs are laid in each of them. After this, the queen builds several tiers until new workers appear from previously laid eggs. The more workers appear, the more extensive the wasp’s jaws create a paper ball, and the queen, meanwhile, is engaged in her direct function - reproduction.

In biology, this group includes all insects belonging to the order Hymenoptera and the suborder Stalk-bellied.

The nests of the solitary wasp are very diverse. Thanks to the research of the famous insect behaviorist Jean Henri Fabre, the life of the burrowing ground wasp became known not only to scientists. These predatory wasps inject a paralyzing injection into the nerve center of a large spider, drag the poor thing into a hole, and then lay eggs on it. Soon the larvae emerge from the eggs and begin to eat the spider alive.

The flower wasp builds its cells somewhere in secluded places. Pill wasps (aka pottery wasps) make nests from earth and clay. It looks like a bandoleer for 3-4 rounds, which is hidden in the forest canopy. However, pottery wasps get along well with humans, disguising their cartridge belt on the walls of houses and even inside a person’s home.

Some wasps dig small shelters in plant stems. Finally, there are species that do not burden themselves with any construction work at all. They simply use natural depressions as their humble home.

Benefits in the wild

Even at school, teachers try to convey to children the idea that the destruction of anthills harms forests and that ants are often called forest guards. And for good reason: it is difficult to list all the ways in which ants are useful in the forest.

They accelerate the decomposition of rotten wood of trees and stumps, destroy pests, pollinate flowers when collecting nectar, etc.

In soil formation

It would seem that ants have nothing to do with fertility, so why are they needed if there are such wonderful creatures on earth as earthworms.

As it turned out, ants are able to penetrate much deeper into the soil than worms:

they loosen the soil to a depth of more than 60–65 cm, thanks to this the soil is enriched with substances necessary for plants, air and insect waste products additionally fertilize the soil.

In the cleansing of the forest

Ants also play an important role in forest clearing. Most often, they choose rotten stumps to create their home. To build an anthill, these insects collect nearby everything that may be useful for construction work:

needles;
blades of grass;
twigs;
foliage.

Inside the anthill, due to high humidity and temperature, these materials decompose much faster than in air,

Therefore, each season the insects have to complete construction and rebuild their shelter, collecting more and more new materials from the neighborhood.

For plants

To feed the colony, ants collect and bring home a variety of food, including seeds. Some of them go astray and then sprout. This is how ants spread the seeds of many plants throughout the forest.

In addition, there are plants of the Myrmecocoraceae family, the seeds of which are carried only by forest ants. This:

clogs;
alto;
mariannik;
pulmonary;
brilliant;
cornflower

and almost 300 other plant species.

In pest control

The benefits of ants in nature cannot be overestimated: they improve the soil and spread seeds, but also, perhaps more importantly, destroy pests.

Forests are home to a huge number of insects, many of which are harmful to the plants themselves. For example, forest plantations suffer from saws and moths.

But in those forests where ants live, the number of parasites is much smaller, which is not surprising: a colony of just one anthill per day collects more than 2,000 pupae and larvae in the area for food and supplies for the family.

Foresters know about this and deliberately populate ant colonies in their areas.

Link in the food chain

In nature, ants can not only be consumers, but also serve as food for birds, as well as for some animals:

the Bears;
black grouse;
foxes;
Taxi;
curly;
moles;
lizards and others.

In addition, ants destroy parasites that live on birds. Etymological scientists claim that in this case, birds crush some of the individuals under their wings in order to obtain a portion of formic acid, which is so useful for their body.

Nutrition

Wasps are predatory insects, although they are known to have a “sweet tooth.” You should not leave bowls of jam on the summer veranda after drinking tea; wasps will certainly discover this gift and fly here for a new portion. Wasps can lick nectar from flowers, or they can also snack on smaller insects.

And yet, one has only to remember the wasp-rider, and doubts about predation will disappear. This wasp looks for a well-fed caterpillar, sits astride it (like an equestrian), pierces the skin with its ovipositor and lays eggs in the body of the victim.

Later, the larvae will be provided with food, that is, this very caterpillar. Some wasps choose beetles instead of caterpillars. The Pepsis wasp (road wasp) even tracks spiders, attacking them, sometimes even in their own home, and lays its eggs in the body of this spider.

By the way, cicadas, which are larger than wasps, also feed the larvae. They are simply walled up in a cell with an egg and when the larva hatches, it will not starve.

Preventative measures against annoying neighbors

Paper wasps are troublesome neighbors. They spoil fruits on trees, bite people, and intrusively climb on sweet food. To reduce the likelihood of them settling near the house or under its roof, it is advisable to destroy the nest. Knowing what wasps do in winter, you can safely cut down the structure and burn it. At this time, you do not risk getting bitten by a stinging insect. Females do not settle in the old nest, but build a new one in their usual place. If you treat the area where the building was located with an unpleasant-smelling compound (kerosene, machine oil, dichlorvos), the queen will fly away to look for a more suitable shelter.

To deprive wintering wasps of shelter on the site, certain work should be done:

collect and burn dry leaves;
remove rotten stumps and cut trees;
do not leave boards or slate sheets on the ground, under which insects seek shelter for the winter;
pour boiling water over compost heaps;
You can begin preparing material for the traps that will be needed to protect the crop.

Fighting stinging insects after the onset of cold weather is absolutely safe. They remain in a state of diapause until April-May. Only with the onset of warm weather (+14 0) will the queens wake up and begin creating a new colony. Preventive measures will help reduce the number of insects that survive until spring.

What happens if you kill a queen wasp?

The death of the uterus inevitably leads to the cessation of the family's existence. Working individuals gradually leave the nest, weak ones die of hunger. Empty shelters are often taken over by parasites. If there are any offspring left in it, they die from the invaders. Only young females survive, capable of reproduction, who will leave the shelter and manage to build a new one.

Wasp life cycle, lifestyle

Everyone has encountered wasps at least once and is well aware of their aggressive nature. The insect, without hesitation, will attack first if it senses danger. Predators are capable of not only stinging, but also biting with their jaws, which in itself is less painful. The family also has a herd instinct. If there are wasps nearby that sense the poison, they will come to the rescue and help attack.

The entire short life cycle of insects can be divided into several stages:

Birth and arrangement of the nest. With the arrival of warmth, the queen begins to nest to give life to a new generation;
Reproduction. After laying eggs, fertile males and females emerge, ensuring further reproduction.

Every gardener, knowing why wasps are needed, will say that wasps only get in the way, because they spoil the fruit harvest, attack people and animals, and feed on the leftover sweet foods from the table. But they also destroy other pests that attack garden plots. In addition, they pollinate plants, which is also important.

Benefits in the wild

They accelerate the decomposition of rotten wood of trees and stumps, destroy pests, pollinate flowers when collecting nectar, etc.

In soil formation

It would seem that ants have nothing to do with fertility, so why are they needed if there are such wonderful creatures on earth as earthworms.

As it turned out, ants are able to penetrate much deeper into the soil than worms:

they loosen the soil to a depth of more than 60–65 cm, thanks to this the soil is enriched with substances necessary for plants, air and insect waste products additionally fertilize the soil.

In the cleansing of the forest

needles;
blades of grass;
twigs;
foliage.

Inside the anthill, due to high humidity and temperature, these materials decompose much faster than in air,

Therefore, each season the insects have to complete construction and rebuild their shelter, collecting more and more new materials from the neighborhood.

For plants

To feed the colony, ants collect and bring home a variety of food, including seeds. Some of them go astray and then sprout. This is how ants spread the seeds of many plants throughout the forest.

In addition, there are plants of the Myrmecocoraceae family, the seeds of which are carried only by forest ants. This:

clogs;
alto;
mariannik;
pulmonary;
brilliant;
cornflower

and almost 300 other plant species.

In pest control

The benefits of ants in nature cannot be overestimated: they improve the soil and spread seeds, but also, perhaps more importantly, destroy pests.

Forests are home to a huge number of insects, many of which are harmful to the plants themselves. For example, forest plantations suffer from saws and moths.

Foresters know about this and deliberately populate ant colonies in their areas.

Link in the food chain

In nature, ants can not only be consumers, but also serve as food for birds, as well as for some animals:

the Bears;
black grouse;
foxes;
Taxi;
curly;
moles;
lizards and others.

Sources

Prygunov, S. E. Occupational safety. General provisions (collection of normative acts) / S.E. Prygunov. - M.: Eksmo, 2015. - 800 p.
Sergey, Borisovich Rossinsky Criminal procedure: a textbook for universities / Sergey Borisovich Rossinsky. - M.: Eksmo, 2009. - 179 p.
White, Jana Strategic Real Estate Portfolio Planning / Jana White. - M.: Publishing solutions, 1977. - 913 p.
Modern problems of implementation of land and environmental law / Team of authors. - Moscow: Nauka, 1977. - 787 p.
Sushkevich, A.G. Application of legislation on competition protection to foreign persons and organizations / A.G. Sushkevich. - M.: Synergy, 2007. - 376 p.

Reproduction and lifespan

After a warm winter (a secluded place is specially located for this), the queen begins to build a nest and lay eggs there. From these eggs only sterile individuals will emerge, which will further build the nest and obtain food.

And only towards the end of summer the queen begins to lay eggs, from which wasps will emerge capable of reproducing. It is these individuals that swarm and mate with each other.

After fertilization has occurred, young females fly out of the nest and look for a warm shelter for the winter, so that in the spring they can build their own nest. The males die. With the onset of cold weather, the entire abandoned wasp family, along with the old female, dies.

One female mates once and is capable of producing more than 2000 wasps. For the most part, these are worker wasps, sterile. The eggs are sealed in a chamber along with small insects (food). The larvae will then feed and gain weight in order to turn into a wasp.

The larvae that will produce wasps capable of reproducing feed differently. They are fed food that promotes the formation of reproductive organs. After the wasp emerges from the larva, it climbs out of the chamber on its own. The queen is 10 months long, but worker wasps and drones are only 4 weeks old.

Poisoned Dew

“Russian families who have been engaged in beekeeping for generations are going bankrupt,” continues R. Klochko. – For example, in the Oryol region. Artsibashev family has had its own apiary since 1946. This year they lost it: 70 families died, the damage is estimated at at least 1.5 million rubles. Or I received a letter from the father of 4 children. The apiary was the main source of income for their family. After the death of the bees, they gave up: is it worth getting new ones? They can also be poisoned. I know that some beekeepers have already written a letter to Vladimir Putin .

Larval development

The female lays each egg in a separate cell. After a few hours, a larva appears - a thick, legless white worm. Sedentary, absolutely unable to take care of herself. It feeds extremely actively and requires exclusively protein foods for development. After 14 days, the larva weaves a cocoon and closes the entrance to the cell. It stays in this state for about a week. Adult adults fly out from there and immediately begin to perform their duties.

Interesting!
In some families of wasps, young females help replenish the colony. They lay eggs, but do not claim to be the queen. However, in the event of the tragic death of the uterus, it is calmly replaced. In such a swarm, fertile females and males are born not only at the end of summer, but periodically throughout the season, ready to mate at any time. The wasp family is called Polista.

How a wasp feeds larvae is a very fascinating process. Chews the insect, forms small balls, and feeds it to the young.

Lifespan

Various representatives of the wasp family can live from a couple of months to several years. Species and external natural factors influence how long wasps live. Wasps are conventionally divided into solitary and social; their life spans are different.

Social ones live in a strict hierarchical system, like bees. Singles lead an isolated existence.

Uterus

The long-lived female among social wasps of all species lives for several years. All summer, the queen actively replenishes the population of the nest, continuously laying eggs. Towards the end of August, new, large cells for special offspring appear in the nest. From these cells young females and males hatch.

Before the onset of cold weather, they mate, after which the males die, and the future mothers of the family look for a place to winter. Females hide under bark, remnants of grass, and leaves. How many years the queen will live depends on a well-chosen location. Smart and lucky ones will survive 3-4 winters.

Working individual

Workers are the main population of a wasp hive, females who are not capable of reproduction. The working individual lives for about two months, the composition is constantly updated due to the continuous work of the uterus. By the end of summer, construction is no longer required; the worker wasps have completed their function. They restore order in their summer residence by eating larvae that have not yet been born.

After the act of cannibalism they set off on a journey. With the onset of the first frost, everyone dies. There are theoretical data according to which the queen of some species of the wasp family leaves the nest, dying along with the workers.

Males

In the tough wasp matriarchy, males are not particularly favored. They are born to fertilize females at the very end of summer; with cold weather, certain death awaits them. The lifespan of a male is about a month, with a maximum of 40 days. It all depends on the time of frost.

How a wasp breathes

In addition to food and water, air is needed to maintain life. The respiratory organs of wasps are a whole system of tubes and sacs. Scientists call them tracheas. Breathing is carried out through special spiracles located on the sides of the body. They are presented in the form of tubes, ending in special bags inside the body.

Numerous tubes extend from the air sacs, which support the functions of the internal organs. The insect can control the supply of oxygen during respiration using a closure valve. Thanks to it, dust and dirt do not get inside.

During the process of breathing, the wasp contracts the muscles of the abdomen and chest. Air enters the trachea and is pushed out. The number of breaths depends on the ambient temperature. The need for fresh oxygen is very great. The respiratory sacs are well developed in the queen, but most of all in drones.

Features of the appearance of insects

A distinctive feature of wasps is alternating yellow and black stripes on the body. They have a pair of membranous wings, antennae as sensory organs, and strong jaws used for tearing apart prey. The sizes of insects vary significantly depending on the species, the body of burrowing wasps is 5-20 mm long, and scolia - 10-100 mm.

Information. Wasps belong to the suborder stalked belly, which is the name given to insects that have a thin waist - an anatomical segment connecting the chest and abdomen.

The bright coloring of adults warns of the presence of poison. Only females can sting the enemy. The sting is a modified ovipositor, so males do not have one. Adults (imago) feed on plant foods; they prefer soft fruits and berries - raspberries, peach, plums, grapes. They enjoy nectar and sweet syrup. The need for proteins is satisfied by licking the hemolymph - the blood of the victims. The larvae are carnivorous; they are fed with body parts of caterpillars, spiders, beetles, and cicadas.

Pests and enemies

Although insects have a sting, they are still often attacked by other insects, mammals and birds. Therefore, even they cannot fully protect themselves.

The most common enemies are:

Ants. They eat weak and sick individuals.
Fan beetle. It settles in the burrow of earthen species and lays eggs on the body of young wasps.
Hornets. They are considered killer wasps. They are quite large and capable of ruining a family in one attack.
Buzzard birds. They feed their chicks with larvae and adults.
Bears, wolverines, hedgehogs. They calmly eat wasps, as they are not afraid of their bites.

The main threat to wasps is the reduction of suitable habitats. Deforestation and plowing of fields lead to the extinction of some species, so many countries carry out special environmental measures aimed at protecting them.

The main nuisance of wasps is their painful sting , which can lead to allergic reactions and anaphylactic shock, and the advantage is the protection of agricultural land from harmful insects that can destroy crops.

What do they eat in summer

The diet and feeding habits of larvae and adults differ significantly. Thinking about what wasps eat, you might think that they are omnivores, but this is a mistaken opinion. There are quite a lot of things that wasps eat and will never touch. Moreover, they are quite picky when it comes to nutrition.

How long do ducks live?

The most constant food for insects is fruit and berry juice, which ripens during the period of their activity. Such nutrition is the main source of energy. In addition, wasps love the insides of berries and are able to leave behind only the skin. This applies to plums, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and grapes.

Representatives’ favorite products are also:

Sugar;
Honey products;
Fruit varieties of jam;
Sweet syrups.

In turn, the larvae feed exclusively on protein tissues, that is, on other insects. Suitable for feeding and development of future offspring:

Slug;
Butterfly;
Spider;
Caterpillar;
Cockroach;
Bedbugs and other insects.

Important! If there are hives with bee families nearby, there is a danger of the striped workers being destroyed by predators.

Dangers of wintering

Not all queens will be able to meet spring. While they sleep with their paws and wings tucked in, they are in danger in the form of animals and birds left to spend the winter in the forests. These natural enemies of wasps find and eat insects.

Interesting fact. During the summer, a colony of wasps builds a large nest, which has protective shells and is characterized by low thermal conductivity. But insects do not stay over the winter in their home; they never return to it.

The danger of wintering

During hibernation, wasps face many dangers. One of the main ones is animals and birds. In the spring, bears destroy stumps and old hollows in search of food. This happens before the insects wake up en masse. Birds also peck at wasps that have settled in hollows or forest floors of dry leaves.

Another danger is unstable weather conditions. With sudden changes in temperature from frost to thaw, the chemical composition of cells changes. During the next cold snap, the mechanism that prevents the crystallization of the liquid does not work, and the wasps die. Abnormally low temperatures are no less dangerous. In very severe frosts, the bodies of insects completely crystallize, causing them to die.

The life cycle of wasps is a complex and interesting process. What these insects do is an integral part of the biome. Death and rebirth are repeated endlessly so that the wasp population does not disappear on our planet.

How long does a worker bee live?

Although worker bees provide the most benefits, their life span is very short. Since such insects constantly work, their life cycle is shortened and thus they live less. The average bee lives from 28 to 180 days. In very rare cases, the age of the insect reached 1 year.

If the colony multiplies in summer, then such a bee lives for a maximum of a month. If the brood was produced in winter, then with proper feeding they can live up to 180 days.

In cold times, and especially in winter, bees must be constantly inspected. Insects cannot tolerate prolonged cold. If the beekeeper has tried and looked after the evidence all winter, then at the beginning of spring his evidence will be without much loss. In case of neglect, you can lose your entire family.

If a bee colony does not increase in size and does not produce offspring, it can survive for about 12 months.

When the bees are sealed for the winter, the bees eat their reserves of honey, beebread and pollen. During the winter, bees need to leave several frames of honey. Otherwise they won't survive. Many economists feed the colony with sugar in winter, thereby reducing the life of a bee by 30%.

Since the evidence is one living organism consisting of many insects, all kinds of diseases cannot be excluded. For example, a weak family is more susceptible to diseases such as viral paralysis, varroatosis, etc. Whereas strong bees will be able to survive until the next brood.

There are no lazy bees, so they all work equally well. Which is why the lifespan is also the same.

Wasp control work in the autumn-winter period

In the autumn and winter, owners of vineyards and orchards should not relax, waiting for the summer “attack” of wasps on fruit and berry crops. A number of works should be carried out in winter, so as not to waste precious summer hours, which are always in short supply.

In late autumn, you should check places where wasps may have lived - attics, sheds, corners in sheds and others. Found empty nests should be removed and burned, and the places where they are attached should be treated with some kind of odor-reducing agent. Kerosene, machine oil, dichlorvos, etc. are suitable. This will not harm the insects, since the wasps have already left their nest, but in the spring, the awakened females will look for places to build a new hive. They like to settle near old nests. The absence of old hives and the intimidating smell will force females to look for other places to create a new family.
With the onset of cold weather (below + 10 degrees), possible wintering sites for females should be collected and burned on the site - old rotten stumps, cut trees. The loose bark should be torn off from dried trunks. Piles of dry leaves should be burned and compost heaps should be poured with boiling water. It is advisable to stir up and turn over or move the boards, pieces of roofing felt and slate to another place. If the wasps have settled down for the winter under them, then, left without shelter, they will die.
During the winter, you can collect empty plastic bottles and make traps from them. 0.7-liter jars with plastic lids are suitable for the same purposes.
On free evenings, you can prepare bags for tying bunches of grapes. Gauze, unnecessary tulle or old thin tights are quite suitable for this.
Preparations should be prepared to combat these insects. It is advisable to stock up on insecticides for baits and traps (boric acid, which is sold in pharmacies, can be successfully used), as well as sprays to destroy nests.

“Armed” in advance, it will be possible to begin the fight against wasps in a timely manner and prevent significant crop losses.

Fighting wasps in the autumn-winter period

Prepare your sleigh in the summer, and start fighting wasps in the winter. Just because wasps have left their nests for the winter doesn't mean they won't return in the spring. Therefore, certain work must be carried out while there is no one in the nests, or rather, as soon as the temperature outside the window drops to 9 - 10 degrees. This makes the task much easier.

First of all, it is necessary to carefully examine their possible wintering places - attics, sheds, all dark and dry corners. Look into every crevice where wasps could possibly live. If boards and other things are piled up on the site “just in case,” they should be moved to another place or rearranged. If wasps were hiding there, then if they were left without a roof over their heads, they would quickly die.

If you find a nest or something similar to it, remove it carefully and destroy it. The place where you found the remains of a wasp nest must be watered with something with a strong and pungent odor. Kerosene, for example, or dichlorvos. These measures will lead to the fact that next year the wasps will look for other nesting places. In addition, before snow falls, it is necessary to collect and burn fallen leaves, if possible, remove dry branches and trees from the area, or peel off the bark from them. Thus, we will significantly reduce the number of places where wasps can hide for the winter. The right owner will not forget to replenish supplies of insecticides. In winter, they are needed much less and, accordingly, their price is lower. Whether to collect plastic bottles for traps or not is something everyone will decide for themselves. Considering that almost all liquids are sold in such bottles, it is not advisable to collect and store them all winter.

Wintering process

Wasps live in winter in places hidden from human eyes. In most cases, in wood. They can hide and sleep under the bark, in old stumps, abandoned hollows, and crevices. Snowy winters contribute to successful wintering. The thaw has an unfavorable effect when the ice cover melts, the cracks become open to wind and frost. Unfavorable weather conditions, as well as natural enemies, prevent insects from overwintering.

In the wild, insects become victims of birds and animals. Bears deliberately tear open old hollows and eat prey before the insects can get out in the spring. Whether or not wasps sleep in winter is a controversial issue. This is a unique condition, as a result of which activity is lost, metabolic processes slow down, and nutrition as such stops. Wasps become inactive during the winter and save energy. With the onset of warmth, they awaken and continue normal life activities.

Who destroys wasps' nests

In addition to people who do not like living next to wasps, their houses are often destroyed by wild animals and birds. It is especially common to see tits pecking at last year’s wasp’s nest.

Wasp nests can become a source of discomfort and irritation for those whose home they choose as their place of stay. Therefore, it is better to take preventive measures in advance to avoid an inconvenient and burdensome neighborhood.

All social wasps build their homes from a type of paper that they produce by chewing wood or plant fibers. Other wasps attach their nests to the walls of houses, tree branches or rocks.

Lonely wasps don't build their nests out of paper, but they have many other options. Ground wasps, for example, dig long, narrow holes in the ground. Carpenter wasps prefer to build their homes in wood. There they make tunnels, bring the succulent bodies of some insects into them, lay eggs, and then fly away to another cell.

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Pottery wasps lay their eggs in small, pitcher-shaped cells made of clay. Each of them is attached to a branch. Mud wasps make small cup-shaped cells out of mud and attach themselves to buildings or rocks. One type of ground wasp is the only insect that uses a tool to build its nest!

They carefully cover the cell and then trample the ground with tiny pebbles, which they hold in their jaws.

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Wasps and hornets build spherical nests. Hornet nests are not as strong as those of wasps. The nests also differ in color. To prepare the “paper” used to build a nest, hornets gnaw the bark from young, usually birch, branches, so the “paper” is brown. Wasps have gray nests. The wasp scrapes off old, rotten wood on dry trunks, stumps and even fences, leaving longitudinal grooves.

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Hornets build their nests in shelters - in hollow trees, caves, birdhouses, and often settle in the attics of houses. In large hornet nests there are twelve layers of cells superimposed on each other, with a total number of five thousand or more, and the largest nests reach 40-50 cm in diameter and 50 cm in height

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Wasp nests are placed on tree branches, under overhanging rocks or roofs of houses. The nest, attached to a branch, consists of cells with larvae, attached to a common rod, and covered with layers of paper. As the family grows, the nest grows and expands. Some wasps build cells without a shell. The nests of many types of wasps are located openly on tree branches and on rocks: there is no need to camouflage them; what makes a paper city strong is not the walls, but the guards.

In a spherical nest, hexagonal honeycomb cells are attached to each other, with the open hole facing down. The female wasp lays an egg in each cell and begins to feed and protect the larvae that appear a few days after laying.

The nest exists for one summer. Males and workers die in the fall, and fertilized females remain to spend the winter. The overwintered female begins building a new nest. The insect carefully chews the bitten off piece of bark, mixing it with saliva, forms a small ball from the resulting mass with the help of its front legs and returns with it to the nest. The extracted building material is suitable for both honeycombs and the shell of a home. Turning the balls into plates, the hornets paste them over the walls of the shelter. First, the female builds the first tier of comb from several downward-facing hexagonal cells, attaching them to the ceiling of the nest. Soon the queen begins to lay eggs, one in each cell of the comb.

When the family grows, a second one is suspended from the first tier of combs, etc. The expansion of the home always occurs from top to bottom, the entrance is located at the bottom.

Paper production

consists of many operations. It begins with finding the necessary source of raw materials, after which a logistics scheme is thought out, which includes delivery of wood, chemicals, water and energy to the production site. After this, the wood is thoroughly crushed, moistened with substances that ensure the formation of paper fibers and rolled into sheets of the required width.

Wasps, producing paper for their homes, solve the same problems. Let's see how they manage it.

Forming a Helping Family

The nucleus, which will strengthen the main family, deserves a separate story. It is located in the second compartment of the hive, and acts as a helper family. Strengthen it this way:

One frame of printed brood is placed in it.
Two weeks later, they do the same thing, but they put up a couple of frames, or they pour in the young ones.
After the nucleus gets stronger, it is moved to a new home, which is located next to the main house.

In beekeeping in bees, this option is also practiced: the main nest is reinforced only by part of the helper family. The other part of the insects lives independently, grows stronger and develops. She serves as an assistant and, if necessary, strengthens weak families.