Many insects cause a dual feeling in humans. Take, for example, the same wasps: many are afraid of them, but they also want to learn as much as possible about their lives. In particular, animal lovers are often haunted by the question of where wasps hibernate.
In the warm season, these hardworking insects are everywhere: they constantly work, destroying a lot of pests in the garden. But with the onset of cold weather, all wasps disappear somewhere. Let's deal with this mystery and end all sorts of misconceptions in this area forever!
Some believe that their nests, which can often be found in attics, gates, and other secluded places, serve as "winter apartments." Well, if you recall the bees, then this assumption is quite logical. But, unfortunately, this is not so.
The nest is not the place where wasps hibernate, as it serves exclusively as summer housing. In the cold season, hornet's nests empty: removing one of them, you can easily see for yourself.
In fact, wasps fall into winter suspended animation, hiding under the bark of trees, in wood cracks and other shelters. It should be noted that prolonged thaws and light winters are extremely dangerous for them, since many individuals in this case simply freeze out.
So, in the southern regions of Germany, a catastrophic shortage of wasps has recently been observed: local populations are accustomed to mild winters and later went to winter. The current instability of the climate leads to their massive freezing.
So how and where wasps winter? In mid-autumn, all working females and males become numb, become inactive, and die. The remaining uterus is looking for a place to hibernate, and at the first sign of a cold it climbs in and freezes until spring.
During this period, her body temperature drops to a minimum, metabolism practically stops. With the first rays of the sun, the wasp comes to life, begins to eat intensively and build a nest. It should be noted that the insect wasp does not always have such a life cycle.
Some species living in Kazakhstan breed young females only by the beginning of August. And therefore, not only the uterus, but also they are sent for the winter. In this case, young individuals in the spring begin to build a nest and provide the colony with food, while the main female is laying eggs.
Note that not all species of young wasps help the uterus. In most cases, they scatter around the neighborhood and establish their own colonies, and their parent builds a “beehive” alone and raises a young shift. Only after their maturation can she focus on laying a new batch of eggs.
Since wasps winter in old trees, wild boars often use this. In the southern regions, they often search all the rotten stumps, looking for the "sites" of the insects in question. However, in the summer they are no less willing to do this, as the wasp larvae are a delicacy for them.
Note that there are the genera Vespula and Dolichovespula, in which the caste of workers has completely disappeared. Having wintered, their uterus lay eggs in nests of other species, and then mate with grown males. They do not build their nests.
We hope that you learned about the places where wasps winter. As you can see, this is very interesting!
