What does a wasp nest look like?
Every year we’re swamped with calls about wasps nesting in attics and gardens from May time onwards, with a lot of confusion as to whether it’s bees, wasps or hornets making their nests ready for the Summer.
In truth if you’ve got a wasp nest in your attic or garden it won’t be of significant size until later in the year – typically late June until the end of September. A wasp nest during May will be about the size of a ping pong ball, which the queen wasp will build so she can start laying her eggs. These will hatch into worker wasp larvae and her colony will start to grow.
If left alone a wasp nest will get pretty big and grow to about 10,000 in number. They’re effectively made from paper as wasps will chew wood into pulp as building material. In fact, paper itself is based on the material wasps use to make their nests.
How do you know if it’s a wasp or hornet?
Altogether there are over 100,000 known species of wasp, and hornets are a member of the wasp family. Hornets have wider heads, are generally larger and have rounded abdomens. Their lifecycle is different to wasps and they tend to have less black on their body with brown, orange or yellow-ish markings. Queen wasps are larger than the worker wasps you commonly see in your garden during the Summer, so can be mistaken for hornets in early spring when they wake up from hibernation.
How do you know if it’s a wasp nest or bee’s nest?
There are 250 types of bee found in the UK and they can be mistaken for wasps in early Spring time. Bumble bees are much fluffier in appearance and may move into your attic or bird box temporarily to raise a family but will move on again once their young are fully grown.
Mortar or masonry bees are solitary bees and commonly nest in holes in the ground or in walls. They rarely sting and normally only if you pick one up and squeeze it. Honeybees live in swarms that can be up to 75,000 in number and are very similar to mortar bees in appearance.
So, if you see a large solitary wasp during April, May and early June chances are that it’s a queen looking for some where to nest and start her colony. Hopefully she’ll find some where out in nature where her colony won’t impact on humans. Having emerged in the Spring after her Winter hibernation, she’ll live for the whole Summer. During the Autumn she’ll die naturally along with the rest of her colony, but beforehand will lay eggs of future queens. These queens will leave the nest and hibernate during the Winter making new nests in the Spring time and the life-cycle starts once again.
