Those pesky wasps

[Jerrymac]

Is it really true that it is only the queen wasp that over winters? I didn't see very many wasp last year. But since about November Every warm day that I am out I kill a bunch of them. Any where from three on up to over twenty. Just this past week I have killed over 60 of them critters. That's counting the 20+ today. perhaps might even be closer to 30. So what do you think. Are all of these just the queens? Or did a lot more over winter?

[Michael Bush]

You have winter in Texas?

[Jerrymac]

We get a little bit. It actually snowed a couple of times this winter. All wasp nest I knew about were abandoned sometime in the fall. So I just wondered what all of them did if they all survived the winter. Have a reunion and start all over  :roll:

[Cindi]

Jerry, I don't know.  I was of a distinct impression that the worker wasps all died in the wintertime.  The queen is the only smart one, she finds a crevice or somewhere to overwinter in, comes out in the spring, impregnated and lays the first brood.  She looks after this brood and then the brood hatches and they carry on, raising more and more and more brood.  You said that you have killed many, many.  I wonder if those many, many, were indeed the queens.  I would imagine a colony would set a lot of queens to hibernate over the wintertime.  But I honestly don't know. If you had freezing temperatures, I would imagine that the workers all died, but then, I am not an expert in this field.  You may find out more information as time goes on.  Beautiful day in this great life, Cindi

[Jerrymac]

A whole bunch of them got around the door of my storage shed. Think I killed about ten of them back in November. Yesterday I was pulling some old wood off of the shed and even though it has been warm for awhile there were several still hiding out there. Perhaps they done came out and fed and went back in. I can't tell that they have started building any nest yet. I got a container I am soaking some old comb in water. It had a lot of granulated honey in it. The bees and wasp gather there. Looks like a war zone all the dead wasp bodies lying around  :-D