Social wasps, which include common species like yellow jackets and hornets, maintain an annual life cycle in temperate climates. The colony is not built to survive the winter, and the entire structure and the vast majority of its inhabitants are abandoned and die off with the onset of cold weather. This yearly cycle shifts the focus from colony expansion to the production of new reproductive individuals who alone survive the seasonal change.
The Annual Life Cycle of Social Wasps
The yearly cycle begins in the spring when a single, newly-mated queen emerges from her overwintering site to establish a new nest. She constructs the initial paper comb, lays eggs, and raises the first batch of sterile female workers. Once these workers mature, they take over foraging for food and expanding the nest structure, allowing the queen to focus solely on laying eggs.
During the height of summer, the worker population grows exponentially, swelling to thousands of individuals, driven by the queen’s rapid egg-laying rate. The colony’s primary focus is gathering protein, mainly from other insects, to feed the developing larvae. In late summer and early autumn, the colony prepares for its final reproductive phase. The queen shifts production from sterile workers to fertile male wasps (drones) and new queens. These reproductive individuals leave the nest to mate, marking the end of the colony’s productive phase.
What Happens to the Nest and Worker Colony
With the departure of the new queens and males, the social structure of the colony rapidly collapses, and the workers and the queen face a swift decline. The first hard frost or prolonged low temperatures are often the definitive end for the workers and drones. They cannot regulate their body temperature or find sufficient food resources to sustain the colony. The workers are sterile and short-lived.
The paper nest, constructed from chewed wood fiber mixed with saliva, is not insulated and provides no thermal protection against freezing temperatures. As the colony dies off, the nest is completely abandoned and is never reused by a new queen the following spring. New queens always start a fresh nest in a new location, which is why a visible nest from the previous year is simply a hollow, harmless structure.
Where the New Queens Go to Hibernate
The only members of the colony to survive the winter are the newly mated queens, who enter a specialized state of metabolic suppression known as diapause. This state is similar to hibernation and allows them to conserve fat reserves built up during the late summer. The queens spend the cold months tucked away in sheltered locations that offer stable temperatures and protection from predators.
Common overwintering sites include protected crevices, such as under loose tree bark, within hollow logs, or buried shallowly in the soil or leaf litter. They also frequently seek out man-made structures, finding refuge in wall voids, attics, or the corners of sheds and garages. These isolated queens remain immobile until rising spring temperatures trigger them to emerge and begin the cycle anew.
Safe Winter Nest Removal
Because the nest is abandoned and not reused, it poses no threat to people once cold weather has set in. The safest time to remove an old wasp nest is in the mid-to-late winter, after repeated hard freezes have ensured any remaining workers have perished. At this point, the nest is simply a brittle, papery shell.
Removal of a winter-abandoned nest is typically done for aesthetic reasons or to prevent scavengers from being attracted to the decaying material. Since a new queen will not occupy an old nest, clearing the structure does not prevent a new colony from being founded nearby in the spring. If a nest is located in an inaccessible area, such as a wall void, leaving it in place is harmless, as the paper material will eventually decompose naturally.