Name: Bill
Status: other
Grade: other
Location: Outside U.S.
Country: USA
Date: Fall 2011
Question:
Why are wasps so active in late Oct. They seem to be looking to find a place to hide. Also, what happens to wasps over the winter? Do they die from cold?
Replies:
Yellow jacket and bald faced hornets, the most common social wasps, build up numbers in their colonies through the summer, and peak in fall, so more of them may be seen. All except the queen will die over winter. Queens hibernate in some sheltered place to start a new colony in the spring. Many other species of wasps are mostly solitary, some females hibernate over winter, most males die.
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