The European Wasp Nest Development Cycle in Australia
The following is a guide to the annual European nest construction(ACT, 2006, Tasmania, 2013)
Winter (June - August) - Queens are hibernating.A number of nests remain active and over-winter
Spring (October) – Hibernation ceases and Queens find nest sites to construct the initial nest.
Early Summer (December) - Nests will have hundreds of cells and hundreds of worker wasps. Foraging and nest construction increase
Summer (January - February) – Nest sizes increase with thousands of cells for worker production. There are a thousand workers in each nest
Early Autumn (Late March) - Construction of queen cell starts.There are two thousand workers in nests
Autumn (mid to late April) – The production of new Queen adults occur.The number of worker wasps is three thousand in nests
Late Autumn (May) – Production of the Queens is under way.The number of adult wasps is four thousand in nests.The colony cycle peaks with thirty thousand rearing cells for workers and fifteen thousand rearing cell for queens in nests.
Winter (June - August) - Queen production results in seven thousand queens.After producing there can be 7,000 Queens. If there are low numbers of queen production, the site will go into the winter cycle.There is a maximum of 16 thousand queens in a nest.They leave the nest, mate and hibernate.Only a few nests successfully over-winter.
Figure 14. Cross section of European wasp nest (Phil Spradbery XCS consulting)