At first glance the answer from many would be the former, ‘absolutely wicked’, and a real annoyance.
Throughout Autumn our common Wasp, Vespa vulgaris can become the aim of our misplaced ire.
You know the typical scene, in September or maybe even October during a late blast of sunshine, we are out in the garden or outdoor café having a bit of lunch and lo and behold they appear, as if determined to torment us.
Though to appreciate their value and beauty, we must understand the very basics about their fascinating lives.
So why do these little creatures bother us and what use are they?
Yearly lifecycle of the Common Wasp
Well first before answering these questions we need to understand the basics of the lifecycle of our Common Wasp.
Initial stages of a Wasp colony – Early Spring.
It all starts in early Spring with the awakening from hibernation of the female Queen wasp.
She was born the previous Summer and hibernated in a nice dry spot overwinter, such as your shed, deep in a thicket of Ivy or some such cosy dry spot.
On waking from her winter slumber, when the temperature signals spring is here, she immediately sets about creating her beautiful papier-mache, tiny plum sized nest.
This will be located in a suitable sheltered spot, such as a roof cavity or deep in a garden raised bed or thick grassy tussock.
Common Ivy in flower in autumn, an incredibly rich source of pollen and nectar and a very important plant for so many creatures.
Queen Common Wasp busy at work in her beautiful newly constructed nest.
Here she will lay approximately 8 eggs that will hatch into tiny young grubs and tend to them until they pupate into the first workers.
They in turn will take over all duties to maintain the colony, from nest building to hunting and gathering food, to feeding young developing wasps.
A new wasp’s nest located in a friends shed we unfortunately had to remove.
Mid stages of a Wasp colony. Late Spring to Late Summer.
This period during early and late Summer is when the colony is at its most active and has the largest population of female worker wasps.
As the Spring progresses into mid to late summer, the queen has been increasing her laying rate and the workers extending the actual structure of the nest more and more, to cope with the increase in number of young wasps being reared.
They also at this stage are working flat out to hunt and feed these young developing wasp larvae.
Later in the Summer the colony will produce some new queens and some male drone wasps, all the other workers being females.
Latter stages of a wasp colony. Early and late Autumn.
These new virgin queens will leave the nest, mate with male drones from other colonies, and late in Autumn go into hibernation, to start the whole cycle afresh again the following year.
The old original colony comprising of the queen and workers will completely die off during the first spells of hard frosts in October and November. Climate change of course has meant this now occurs later than previous decades.
So, like with so many creatures, understanding the basics of their lifecycles gives us a greater appreciation of the vital roles they play in healthy functioning ecosystems and as to why they act in certain ways.
So now, at last let’s look as to why we should be cherishing and marvelling at, these wonderful creatures.
Wasps are predators and keep other insect numbers in check.
Wasps work tirelessly, hunting to feed their carnivorous young.
Worker wasps will hunt for small creatures such as spiders, flies, aphids, caterpillars and more, chopping them up to feed them to their young larvae in the nest. The larvae in turn will secrete a sugary liquid that the adult worker wasps will readily consume, for energy to fuel their work.
Wasps are social creatures working tirelessly for the good of the colony.
Like Honeybees and other social creatures such as Ants and Bumblebees, individual worker wasps constantly and selflessly toil to ensure the success of the overall colony.
Common wasp foraging for nectar and thus pollinating on a Raspberry flower at Wildacres.
Wasps are Pollinators, often underappreciated for the important role they play.
Wasps will also visit certain plants that they can easily drink nectar from, such as Ivy (Incredible wildlife plant) Figwort, Hogweed, Angelica and many more wild plants. Thus, they play an important role in aiding effective pollination of our wild and cultivated plants.
Common wasp foraging for nectar on Common Figwort at Wildacres.
Wasps are industrious and craft an architecturally stunning papier-mache like nest.
The delicate nest in its first stages is constructed by the queen. As the Spring and Summer progresses it grows and grows in size, the workers cleverly extending the structure by chewing frayed wood, mixing it with saliva to construct this beautiful paper like nest.
The first cells constructed that will be used to raise the first worker wasps in a new wasps nest at Wildacres.
So why do they bother us at this time of year and what can we do about it?
First let’s rewind to our outdoor picnic and the annoying wasp buzzing around your sandwiches and scones.
As we mentioned earlier, as the colony begins to decline coming into late autumn and the queen stops laying eggs, the existing workers are effectively now unemployed.
Having no more young to feed and in turn, not getting their daily ration of sweet sugary liquid as they had previously been getting, what do they do….they search for an alternative source of sugar.
So back to our picnic with its spread of sugary treats and sometimes meat.
This is sensory overload for the hungry wasps craving sugar and sensing meat which appeals to their hunting instinct.
Then to top it all, we might have a splash of aftershave or perfume on, which further excites them, as often the scent resembles floral aromas.
Then to put the cherry on the cake, so to speak. We swat and whack them to try and deter them, which in their current state of turmoil due to the breakdown of their colony as winter approaches, gets them really riled up.
So, in summation, and our closing argument in favour of these fascinating creatures.
These are important animals performing a regulating role in keeping other insect populations in check as well as helping pollinate some of our wild and cultivated plants.
So no, they do not start each day thinking “How many pesky humans can I sting today? 😊
In fact, we have often worked in close proximity to large wasp’s nests (Disclaimer: We are not recommending you do this!), we continuously observed they had no interest in going near us and were only focused on providing for their colony. Only as a last resort if they feel threatened, will they use their sting.
As is often the case in nature, when we delve a bit deeper, we realise that these and so much more of our biodiversity, has outstanding beauty and plays such an important role in regulating conditions in the environment we live in.
In answer to the original question posed. We can emphatically answer it by honestly saying they are important, industrious, beautiful and absolutely fascinating creatures.
So lets hear it for our Common Wasp!
Interested in booking into a Guided Nature Experience at Wildacres? Learn more/see upcoming dates here
Yours in nature!
Brian and Gilly
Brian and Gilly at entrance to Wildacres
