Where do wasps hibernate?

Only the young queens survive

The life of a wasp colony ends with the first frosty nights of autumn. The queen, the workers and the drones die, and the nest is left empty. The young queens that hatched in late summer are the exception: as soon as they have been mated by drones from other colonies, they leave the nest to look for a sheltered place to spend the cold season. They alone carry the colony’s genetic legacy into the next year — none of the other insects in the colony live to see the winter through.

Sheltered hiding places for the cold season

For overwintering, young queens prefer places that offer protection from frost, damp and predators alike. These include rotting dead wood, bark crevices in old trees, loose soil and wall cavities, but also man-made structures such as roller shutter boxes, attics or garden sheds. There the queen enters a state of winter dormancy in which her metabolism and activity are reduced dramatically, allowing her to get by on her own energy reserves for several months. During this period there is virtually no movement at all.

A fresh start in spring

Only with the first mild days of spring does the young queen emerge from her winter dormancy and begin looking for a suitable nesting site. The previous year’s nest no longer plays any part in this — it is not reoccupied, even if it is still structurally intact. Instead, each queen builds her own nest from scratch at a site she chooses herself, usually a new one, and in doing so lays the foundation for an entirely new colony. Why the old nests no longer pose any danger in spring is explained in the guide The wasp queen in spring; exactly when a colony dies off in autumn is covered by the article When do wasps die. For an overview of the subject, see our pillar guide Wasps: the key facts at a glance, and for identifying species the species overview.