ICommon Wasp > Vespula vulgaris

A brief description of Social Wasps: Live in annual colonies, each started by a queen, who lays all the eggs. The colony inhabits a nest built with paper made by chewing up wood fragments. A mature nest may contain several thousand six-sided cells in which the grubs are reared. Nearly all the wasps in the nest are workers, smaller than the queen, but otherwise very similar. They collect food and building materials and do all the work in the nest. Adults eat nectar, fruit, and other sweet things, but the grubs are reared on animal food - especially other insects. Workers are on the wing from late spring until the first frosts. Males, identified by the long antennae, occur only in late summer, when they mate with the new queens. Colonies break up in the autumn, and only newly-mated queens survive the winter, hibernating in sheltered places, emerging in spring. Apart from the hornet, all UK species are black and yellow. They fold their wings lengthways along the sides of the body at rest. All wasps can sting, apart from the males, but do not usually attack unless annoyed.

Description: 9-18mm in length. Parallel-sided yellow streak each side of the thorax, four yellow spots at rear. Usually has a black anchor-shaped mark on face.

Nesting habits: Usually nests in hedgebanks or other well-drained underground sites, but often in wall cavities and roof spaces. The nest is roughly spherical and covered with shell-like lobes of paper. Made from fairly rotten wood, the paper tends to be yellow and quite brittle.

Habitat and range: Common in most habitats throughout the UK.

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