Wasps and hornets
Wasps and hornets are stinging insects classified under the order Hymenoptera, with many species forming large colonies led by a queen, which is characteristic of social wasps like hornets. These insects are known for their ability to construct paper nests, often found in tree limbs or underground. One common example is the white-faced hornet, identifiable by its black and white coloration. Wasps exhibit a range of sizes, from small parasitic types to larger species over two inches long.
Social wasps, including yellow jackets, live in colonies that can number in the thousands, while solitary wasps build individual nests using materials such as mud or wood. The life cycle of wasps is seasonal, starting with a queen establishing a nest in the spring, laying eggs, and raising larvae through the summer, while the colony typically dies off in the fall, leaving only newly fertilized queens to hibernate through the winter.
Despite their reputation for aggression, many wasps play a beneficial role in the ecosystem, preying on harmful insects and aiding in pollination. While their stings can be painful and potentially harmful to allergic individuals, their contribution to pest control and crop pollination highlights their importance in both nature and agriculture.
Wasps and hornets
Wasp and Hornet Facts
Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Subkingdom: Bilateria
Phylum: Hexapoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera (wasps, ants, and bees)
Suborders: Apocrita, Symphyta (wood wasps)
Superfamilies: Include Apoidea, Chrysidoidea, Vespoidea, Ceraphonoidea, Chalcidoidea, Cynipoidea, Evanoidea, Ichneumonoidea, Sinicoidea, Orussoidea
Families: Include Vespidae (hornets), Chrysididae (cuckoo wasps), Pompilidae (spider wasps), Tiphiidae, Scoliidae, Mutillidae
Genus and species: Include Vespula, such as V. consobrina (blackjacket); V. maculifrons (eastern yellowjacket), V. pensylvanica (western yellowjacket); Polistes, such as P. fuscatus aurifer (golden paper wasp); Eumenes fraternus (potter or mason wasp); Sceliphron caementarium (black-and-yellow mud-dauber wasp); Sphecius speciosus (cicada killer)
Geographical location: Europe, Asia, and the Americas
Habitat: Trees in forests, woods, and plains; on or under rocks; in the ground; around human habitations
Gestational period: About one month for hatching and pupation
Life span: Varies; queens live up to ten months, while drones or workers live for a few weeks
Special anatomy: Six legs, three on each side of thorax; two pairs of wings
Wasps are stinging insects of the order Hymenoptera. Many live in large colonies which have a queen, males, and sterile female workers. Such social wasps are hornets. Wasps are called solitary if they do not live in communities, but build small brood nests to hold their young.
Social wasps such as hornets make paper nests. One example is the white-faced hornet, which is found throughout North America. These wasps are 1.25 inches long and contain black with white markings. They build nests, up to half-bushel size, in tree limbs. Yellow jacket species live in colonies of many thousands, close to or under the ground. Giant European hornets, which have been in the United States since the 1850s, are brown with yellow streaks and nest in hollow trees. In some wasp species, no workers are born, and females lay eggs in the nests of other wasps. Wasp size can vary from parasitic wasps that develop in insect eggs to species attaining body lengths of over two inches.
Physical Characteristics of Wasps and Hornets
Wasp bodies, which are covered by coarse hairs, have a head, thorax (midbody), and abdomen (hind body) segments. Thoraxes hold four wings and six legs. The bodies are steel blue, black, yellow, or red, with abdominal rings. Reproductive, digestive, and excretory systems are in the abdomen and thorax. Females have stingers at the end of the abdomen. Parasitic wasps use stingers to insert eggs into hosts. Female nonparasitic wasps (which are most wasps) use stingers to paralyze their prey and inject venom. The stings are painful, because the venom contains histamine that dissolves red blood cells. Wasp stings, especially by hornets, can kill humans who are allergic.
Wasp heads contain sharp, strong mandibles (jaws), designed to chew hard things, tear up food, dig burrows, pulp wood and earth. Wasp mouths can also lap liquids. Above the mandibles, their heads contain paired, keen, compound eyes and paired sensory antennae. Queen wasps in social species are reproductive females who use sperm obtained in mating flights to fertilize eggs that become females. Unfertilized eggs become drones (males). Production of queens-to-be or female workers depends on diet.
Wasp Nests and Life Cycles
Nests of social wasps range from combs without protecting covers to round nests up to ten inches in diameter. These have paper-tiered combs and waterproof outside covers. Social wasps nest wherever possible. Small combs can be built under porch roofs, rafters, or trees. There are two yellow jacket types, the long-faced and short-faced species. Long-faced yellow jackets nest in trees, bushes, and roofs, while the short-faced type nests in the ground.
A wasp colony lasts one year. The year-long cycle for a wasp queen begins after it stirs from hibernation. The queen will then begin construction of a nest. The queen will begin by first locating an ideal location, and one that is dry and one preferably with some shelter from light. The queen will begin building the honeycomb structure by molding together chewed wood fiber and saliva. She will also begin producing worker bees, which are sterile female wasps. A colony starts after a queen makes a few cells, lays an egg in each, and feeds larvae with chewed-up insects. Next, larvae spin cocoons and pupate for several weeks, emerging as workers. With these tasks complete, a queen will do nothing further except lay eggs. The eggs yield worker wasps until late summer, when the queen lays eggs that will become males and queens. Workers tend the young and enlarge the nests. A hornet nest may have thousands of males, females, workers, and young. As spring moves into summer, the size of the nest will have expanded to accommodate an ever-growing number of workers. Layers will be continuously added. In the summer and into autumn, the queen will begin to produce male drones and then other queens. The typical nest may ultimately contain up to 2000 queens. The male drones will only be present for a short period late in the summer or early autumn. By the end of this period the queens will have been inseminated and the drones removed from the nest. Wasps store no food, and in fall the whole colony dies except for the future queens. In the winter, the new queens will also depart from the nest and hibernate in crannies until spring. Here, the cycle begins again.
Solitary wasps live alone except for breeding. Types of solitary wasps include mason, carpenter and digger wasps. Potters wasps make mortar of mud and saliva and place brood nests in trees. Mud dauber wasps mix mud with saliva and build nests under porch roofs. Stone worker wasps mix pebbles with mud and nest on rocks. Carpenter wasps tunnel into trees and digger wasps tunnel into the ground.
All adult wasps eat caterpillars, spiders, beetles, flies, other insects, and nectar. Solitary wasp species feed their larvae with specific live insects. Mothers set up nurseries, paralyze prey by piercing nerve centers with their stings, and take the live food to nests. They will then lay an egg on each body. Larvae feed on the insects until they begin spinning cocoons to pupate, emerging after pupation as adult wasps.
Yellow Jackets
North American short-faced yellow jacket wasps (hornets) are 0.75 inches long, with yellow and black head, thorax, and abdomen markings that give them their name. They nest below grass level near decaying wood. Their nests are paper, made from saliva and wood.
Each nest has a queen, who lays all eggs. Fertilized eggs become females and unfertilized eggs become males. Reproductive females are produced when the colony is ending its one-year life span. Sterile females tend the nest and larvae. Reproductive females eventually become queens, and males mate with queens-to-be.
The yellow jacket diet is insects, fruit, and nectar. Only worker yellow-jackets hunt food, which they eat by tearing it with their mandibles. Queens live for ten months, while drones or workers only live for a few weeks.
Helpful Wasps
Most wasps help humans and the environment. They damage some fruit, but they destroy caterpillars, beetles, flies and other harmful insects. Thus, they do far more good than harm. Several species pollinate farm crops. Furthermore, the parasitic varieties lay their eggs in the bodies and eggs of pests such as aphids, thereby reducing their numbers.
Principal Terms
drone: a male wasp
hornet: a social wasp
mandible: a wasp jaw
social wasp: a wasp living in a large colony
Bibliography
Baker, Mike. "‘Murder Hornets’ in the U.S.: The Rush to Stop the Asian Giant Hornet." The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/us/asian-giant-hornet-washington.html. Accessed 14 July 2023.
Crompton, John. The Hunting Wasp. Reprint. New York: Lyons Books, 1987. An interesting book on wasp natural history and predation.
Gullan, P. J., and P. G. Cranston. Insects:AnOutlineofEntomology. 2d ed. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Science, 2000. A fine text on entomology, including wasps and hornets.
“Hymenoptera.” ITIS, Integrated Taxonomic Information System, 8 Nov. 2017, www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search‗topic=TSN&search‗value=152741#null. Accessed 31 Jan. 2018.
Johnson, Sylvia A., and Hiroshi Ogawa. Wasps. Minneapolis: Lerner, 1984. A book for juveniles that describes social wasp nests, egg laying, and life.
"Life Cyle of a Wasp." Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, www.landcareresearch.co.nz/discover-our-research/biodiversity-biosecurity/invasive-invertebrates/vespula-wasps/life-cycle-of-a-wasp. Accessed 14 July 2023.
Osterloff, Emily. "What Do Wasps Do?" Natural History Museum, www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/what-do-wasps-do.html. Accessed 14 July 2023.
Spoczynska, Joy O. I., and Melchior Spoczynski. The World of theWasp. New York: Crane, Russak, 1975. A solid, illustrated book on wasps.