NATURE NOTEBOOK
Social wasp © Wendy Carter
s p s a W l u f r e d n o W Wasps are almost universally disliked so discover more about their amazing lives and why it’s important to give them a bit of a love... There are over 7000 species of wasp in
new queens and males, which prompts the winding
the UK but most of us only notice the
down of a nest and, when there are fewer larvae in
bold black-and-yellow ones that buzz
the nest producing juicy liquid, adult wasps see our
around our picnics in late summer. This is unfortunate
foods and fizzy drinks as a quick and easy carbs fix.
because it gives all our amazing wasps a poor
Like bumblebees, only the new queens survive winter,
reputation. Take a closer look and you’ll discover that
ready to start a new nest somewhere else next year.
they’re important pollinators, essential top predators (social wasps catch an estimated 14kg of insects each year), incredible engineers and it’s thought that understanding more about the chemicals in their stings could help medical science.
see them rasping at the wood – they mix the wood shavings with saliva to produce a paste that is used to make the nest. Essentially, they engineer incredible architecture from papier mache! Solitary wasps dig
means that mums provision their own eggs with food
chambers or construct elaborate pots and other
– depending on the species, this can be flies, spiders,
structures from mud.
radar and our contact is most often with social wasps. There are nine species of social wasp in the UK and it’s their social nature that brings them into contact with us.
Worcestershire Wildlife Trust
as it lands on a wooden shed or bench and you’ll
The vast majority of the UK’s wasps are solitary. This
weevils, aphids or other insects. These fly under our
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Have you ever seen a social wasp nest? Watch a wasp
If sharing your outdoor food with wasps bothers you, consider placing fruit (if it’s going over a little, this is even better) somewhere nearby to attract them away from your picnic – perhaps the other end of
Ruled by a queen, female workers hunt for food to
a bench or a couple of metres away. If you have a
raise the young. They hunt for insects that we often
nest on your property, you might not know about it
think of as ‘pests’ – flies, weevils, caterpillars etc. I
until it starts to break down but once this happens
once watched a wasp deftly bite off the abdomen of
(at any point from mid-August to late-September),
a horsefly and fly back to the nest with it.
you’re just a matter of weeks away from the wasps
Wasps have incredibly thin waists, which means
disappearing altogether.
that adult wasps can’t eat solid food, so they live off
Only female wasps (the workers) are able to sting and
worcestershirewildlifetrust G
nectar (hence the pollination) and sweet droplets
they’ll only do so if they feel you’re a threat so if there’s
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produced by their larvae. Queens eventually produce
one buzzing around you, try to relax and stay calm. n
@WorcsWT t
n 16 | Worcestershire Now | Issue 209 | August 2021
