How does a wasp build its nest?

Building material from wood and saliva

Wasps are among the few insects that make their nest out of a kind of paper. Using their mouthparts, workers scrape fine wood fibres from weathered timber, old fences or plant stems and mix them with saliva into a mouldable pulp. Applied in thin layers, this pulp dries into a light, paper-like material that is remarkably stable and weather-resistant. Depending on the raw material used, the colour of the nest surface varies from pale grey to brownish, often visible as fine, marbled streaks.

From the first comb stalk to the finished nest

In spring the overwintered queen starts out alone: she builds a short stalk and the first hexagonal cells, into which she lays her eggs. As soon as the first workers hatch, they take over the further construction, while the queen concentrates on egg-laying from then on. The combs are arranged in several tiers one above the other and enclosed by a protective paper envelope that leaves only a small entrance hole. In this way a nest can grow to several thousand cells over the course of the summer.

A nest for a single season

Elaborate as the construction is, a wasp nest is only used for a single season. In autumn the entire colony dies, with the exception of the mated young queens, and the empty nest weathers away over the winter. As a rule, there is no reoccupation the following year, because every young queen looks for a new nesting site in spring and builds there from scratch. How the roles are divided between queen, workers and drones is explained in the guide to the wasp colony; how a nest in the ground differs from one above ground is shown in the article on ground nests in soil or garden. Our pillar guide Wasps: the most important facts at a glance offers an introduction to the topic, and the species overview helps with identification.