There are many varieties of wasps - insects of the order Hymenoptera - known, but only social ones annoy humans. They are named so because they live in “societies”, large families.
These wasps can make a nest near human habitation, and fly onto terraces or even into rooms in search of food. They are attracted to juicy fruits, juices, jam, and berries. But if what they want is not found, but meat is found, they will begin to pinch off pieces of it for the larvae. Adult wasps feed on sweets (syrup, nectar, juice). And the larvae eat caterpillars, flies, ants and other insects that the elders bring to them.
Wasp nests are made from paper that they make themselves. First, the wasp plucks off pieces of wood. Then he grinds them in his mouth, moistens them with saliva, chews them, and presses them. As a result, a lump is formed, from which thin shavings are removed real paper. The nest is built from it.
Paper wasp nests, although multi-layered, are very fragile. But it is unlikely that there will be anyone who wants to destroy them, since instantly a whole army of angry insects flies out to defend their home. And wasp nests are perfectly protected from temperature fluctuations, which is necessary for the larvae.
Social wasps develop as follows. The female, which has overwintered in some kind of shelter, appears in the spring, makes a primitive nest, lays eggs and feeds the first generation of larvae. Working wasps emerge from them. Their task is to superstructure, to expand the nest. The female sits down to lay new eggs. In the future, only worker wasps work. They look after the female and the larvae, feeding them with caught insects, and completing the nest. And everyone is busy with their own business.
All summer season Only worker wasps are formed from the larvae. By autumn, young females and males appear. Before the cold snap, the old female, all working wasps and young males die. Only the fertilized young female remains to spend the winter. In the spring everything repeats itself.
Social wasps seem to resemble each other, but in fact they have different colors. And they make their homes in different places. If wasp nests are found hanging on branches and attics, then they were made by forest wasps; if in the ground, then they were built by German red or common wasps.
The bites of these insects are very painful for humans, and for people with allergies they can be fatal. In addition, they are capable of carrying intestinal infections (the wasp could have been in a garbage dump and then sat on something lying on the table). If these stinging insects become a real nuisance at your dacha, you should look for their home. When detected, the question arises of how to destroy wasps in the country.
This task is not easy, since with any manipulation of the home of these insects there is a chance of being bitten. To destroy vespiary, you need to dress in such a way as to cover all parts of the body as much as possible. It is necessary to use preparations whose smell is not perceived by wasps as aggressive, for example, “Master 250”. The entrance to the nest is treated with this kind of means, and the wasps will carry the microcapsules into the dwelling itself and die. This operation is best performed in dark time days when all the insects are in the nest.
The paper wasp is an insect that belongs to the family "True wasps" and is directly related to the subfamily "Vespins" or "Polistinas".
Representatives of this family are used as building material when building their nests - pieces of wood.
More this type The wasps are called "Social Wasps". The fact is that they live exclusively by creating colonies, which can contain from several tens to several thousand individuals. The stages of development are in the following order:
- Larva;
- Pupa;
- Adult;
In the summer season, the colony consists of a queen and worker wasps. The queen lays eggs, and the working class maintains the life of its nest, obtains food, defends its home and does other work.
Habitat
There are about 1000 species of wasps in nature. Insects live everywhere to the globe, with the exception of Antarctica. About thirty percent of these insect species live in the Russian Federation. The number of aspen insects of this species is concentrated in South Asia.
Housing construction
Insects extract building materials from rotten stumps, old wood, and presumably use hard household waste. This actually explains the color of the home.
They use a very specific method of extracting this material. The insect walks, lowering its incisors back to the base of the tree cover, then wets it and begins to scrape off wood particles. Having collected a small lump of wood fiber, she flies to the site where the nest is being built.
It must be said that the paper wasp and its nest are the main mission that it performs when building its home in its short life span, since it cannot exist and reproduce in the absence of shelter. On the spot, the wasp chews the entire lump again and tries to moisten it as much as possible with its sticky saliva.
Then she sits on the edge of a cell of a dwelling under construction and, moving backwards, rolls out the products into stripes. Then he takes it with his jaws and stretches it along the existing wall. Subsequently, all the following products will be superimposed on each other.
The construction of a home takes place in several stages. In early spring The female paper wasp selects a location for the main stem structure of the future nest. Then he builds it, and at the end of it he builds a couple of hundred. A constantly expanding shell is made at the trunk. There is an entrance hole for the insect.
Around the first shell of the wasp nest, a second one is built, but a little larger. In connection with this, there is a significant increase in housing. Next, near a couple of cells, she builds others, thereby creating honeycombs. When the number of cells (combs) increases, the female gets rid of the inner shell. In the process of growth of the wasp's home, the cells and shells in its interior are eliminated.
Inside the home, the honeycombs are arranged horizontally and are occupied by cells on the 1st bottom side. As the size of the home increases, the number of floors also increases. Wasps are able to build multi-story honeycombs, which in turn have a protective shell that can protect offspring from exposure environment– dampness, wind, temperature and more.
Inside a fully constructed nest, the temperature is set at 30 degrees, which allows the larvae to develop normally. Yet main role in the construction of housing falls on the shoulders of the working class.
Stages of development
The founder of the colony is the female, so at first there is no working class of wasps; she herself takes care of the larvae, feeds, protects, and takes all care of the future offspring upon herself. At first, paper wasp larvae feed on the secretion secreted by the female glands. When the larvae grow up, she begins to feed them various insects.
Working class individuals are among the first to hatch. They have enough work. Here are some tasks they begin to perform on the first day after development:
- Continue building the nest;
- Insect hunting;
- Feeding other larvae;
- Home security;
The wasps chew up the caught victims and in a hurry carry them to their homes. They feed the female and their fellows with food. What is characteristic is that the larvae can also feed the working class of wasps. They regurgitate liquid, which the wasps immediately lick off. This is trophollaxis, when colonies exchange food in the nutria.
In a colony, all wasps have equal rights and perform all functions in the same way. If for some reason the female disappears, they themselves will begin to lay eggs and raise offspring, using the natural instinct of self-preservation of the clan. Over the summer, the number of wasps increases significantly from 10 to 1300 individuals. Most of them will die, only a select few will be destined to continue the family line.
Reproduction
Towards the end of the season, male wasps are selected from large cells. They pass the time in the nest for some time. When their wings become stronger, they fly out from their homes and begin to mate.
After some time, they die, and the female wasps try to survive the winter in order to create their own clan in the spring. Before the onset of cold weather, the working class of wasps stops active and vigorous activity. They do not feed the larvae, but rather eat them, including pupae.
Nutrition
Wasps feed very variedly, they can eat sweet food, or they can treat themselves to insect meat. Let's give a few examples from the daily menu of this type of wasp:
- - Plant-based menu;
- - grape nectar;
- - nectar of pears, apples, peaches and other fruits;
- - nectar collected from flowers (extremely rare);
- - Production
- - flies;
- - ants;
- - grasshoppers;
- - butterflies and other small insects;
We remind you that before the wasp takes its caught prey to the nest, it chews it thoroughly.
Lifespan
The life of a paper wasp directly depends on its habitat. On continents with a temperate tropical climate, it can live for about a year, some individuals live for more than 12 months. In other cases, no more than 6 - 9 months.
This amazing architectural structure is often found in the attics of private houses. The oval cellular cocoon can sometimes reach 1 m in diameter. This is the home of wasps.
The question arises - what do wasps make their nests from: what building materials do insects use? Appearance they resemble paper.
Vespiary
Where do these skilled builders get it from, how do they manage to create a convenient and functional home- the answers are in our article.
All numerous types of wasps are divided into two categories: social and solitary. Their lifestyles differ significantly. The same can be said about their home.
For singles, everything is simple. They do not suffer from gigantomania. For most species, one or several cells on a wall or on a tree trunk are sufficient.
There may be many such cells in different places, but they do not communicate with each other. Some species do without nests at all.
For social wasps, things are much more complicated. They live in colonies, sometimes very numerous, and therefore breed their offspring collectively. This requires a large nest.
What building material do wasps use?
What do wasps make nests from?
Singles have a huge variety in their choice of material:
- Mud wasps build nests out of mud. They are cup-shaped and attached to a stone or building wall.
- Earthlings - they dig a hole for just one cell, supplying the future larva with food and sealing it. When making it, they use small stones that they hold with their jaws.
- Carpenter wasps make a home for their offspring in wood, gnawing out tunnels there.
- Pottery makers are great masters. They make a jug out of clay, attach it to a branch and breed in it.
For social wasps, the building material is wood or grass stems. Scraping off a thin layer, they chew it and form cells from the resulting fibrous mass.
Thus, wasps make their nests out of paper. Despite the apparent fragility, the material is very durable.
The initial stage of building a hive
He doesn't care about his own weight. It can withstand small gusts of wind.
Construction process
For a colony of social ground wasps, the overwintered queen looks for a suitable burrow. If necessary, she expands it and cleans it up.
There should be a place next to her a large number of food. It is enough for the uterus to make no more than 10 cells from chewed and moistened saliva tree bark which turns into paper.
It'll take a little while More than a month and the first worker wasps will hatch from the eggs laid in the cells. They will continue construction.
The process of building a wasp hive
If necessary, the space for the nest can be expanded - insects cope well with excavation work.
Social paper wasps make their home in a similar way and their nest material is the same.
The construction technology is slightly different:
- the founder of the colony attaches a thin thread consisting of the produced adhesive secretion to the selected place;
- solidifying, the thread forms a leg to which the first cells are attached, the structure looks like a small chandelier;
- Working insects emerge from the eggs laid in them, and they complete the nest;
- overlapping each other, the cells turn into honeycombs;
- At first, the nest has the shape of a bowl, new cells turn it into a sphere;
- a second sphere is built around it, at which time some of the cells are removed from the nest.
Socket device
A fully completed nest has an interesting structure: in horizontal floors of honeycombs, all cells are oriented with the entrance down.
Below them is the entrance hole. This orientation is natural - debris does not accumulate in the cells, because it all falls to the bottom.
The most durable and safest is inner part nests During its construction, insects use pieces of wood in the form of chips.
They are obtained by tearing off a thin layer of wood. To do this, the striped builder uses its jaws and paws.
The marks they leave on wood are very characteristic. The size of the wood chips is determined by the ability of the wasp to carry it away. The outer part of the nest is built from thin paper.
Sometimes insects use destroyed inner layers to create it; for this, the paper is recycled by chewing again.
Internal structure of a wasp hive
The conditions for the existence of wasps in a spherical nest are close to ideal: the temperature and humidity there do not change.
The wasp house does not have a given shape once and for all. He constantly changes it: damaged parts are removed and new ones are added.
A colony of wasps increases in number by breeding new individuals, and each egg requires a cell. But you don't have to rebuild it. After the working wasp leaves, it is cleaned and reused for its intended purpose.
Where do wasps most often build their nests?
Single wasps choose very different places: some are comfortable in the branches of trees or in a secluded corner on the wall of a house, some dig holes in the ground, usually where people do not go.
Wasp hive in a hole
There are wasps that settle along roads.
The nest of public wasps has big sizes, therefore, they take the choice of location responsibly, taking into account everything:
- privacy - the place should be secluded enough so that no one disturbs the insects;
- protection from wind and precipitation - paper is still not stone and does not withstand weather disasters well;
- defence from sun rays— excessive overheating will be harmful to the larvae.
That's why suitable places for the nests of social wasps, not so much.
Social wasps have made a hive in the attic of a house
They hang them from walls, eaves or the ceiling in the attic, and in their absence they settle on bushes and trees. Ground social wasps do the same thing, but they build similar structures underground.
A colony of social wasps is created anew every year, since most individuals cannot withstand frost during the winter and die. But this does not mean that the queen will necessarily build a new nest.
She may well use the old, completing and updating it. Therefore, sometimes you can stumble upon giant nests that exist in one place for more than one year.
Conclusion
The world of insects is diverse. Many of them have a strict hierarchy.
Uniting into a community, they clearly distribute their roles and approach the formation of their own home quite responsibly.
Wasps learned to obtain cellulose much earlier than humans and successfully use it to build thoughtful and comfortable nests.
Video: What happens if you open a WASP NEST???
Any insects are a nuisance for the owners of the house in which they appear, be it house ants, cockroaches or wasps. Wasps are common inhabitants human dwellings, gardens or plots. Larvae are offspring that will bring more large quantity larvae and harm, so it is extremely important to know what wasp larvae look like and effective ways their destruction.
These insects can cause dangerous intestinal infections; they behave aggressively if someone tries to influence their nest. Wasps also spoil food and disturb owners with their buzzing and general presence in the apartment. Hundreds of people die every year from allergic reactions to a bee sting.
These insects are among those that go through a cycle of becoming adult during your life. The female lays a larva small size, which is equal to approximately a third of that of an adult. The embryo turns into a pupa, which goes through the formation process quite quickly internal organs: digestive system and other systems vital for insects.
After a few days, the insect sheds its shell and becomes an adult. What do wasps feed their larvae? During his “growing up” period small insect cannot eat the same food as older individuals, the female obtains protein “products” for her offspring: spiders, ants, midges and other insects. The mother attacks her prey, rendering it paralyzed, and brings it to the nest.
The newly laid pupa is almost motionless, so the adult wasp takes care of it. The wasp larva has a yellow body; it does not have membranous and developed wings or legs, with the help of which the flying pest can capture prey and hold it. Since wasp larvae spend most of their development period in honeycombs, they do not move, and if they fall out of the shelter, they move crawling, like caterpillars, only wriggling and rolling from side to side due to the lack of limbs. The larvae have a round body on which divisions are visible
The wasp lays its offspring in honeycombs, attaching the larvae to the walls; it seals the entrance to the “cell” special composition so that the “child” does not fall out. Over time, the wasp larvae reach such a size that they no longer fit into the honeycomb, so it is difficult to fall out of it.
Where to look for a wasp's nest?
The most common location for a nest in an apartment is a balcony, under the ceiling in a corner, behind shelves, under the trim, or vice versa - in a corner closer to the floor, under a window sill, on pipes.
In a private house, wasps can fly from attics, from under the roof of buildings, from piles of old things. Wasps often create their nests where they are most difficult to find. To know how to get rid of pupae of flying pests, you should know what wasp larvae look like so as not to confuse them with caterpillars.
Advice: if it is not possible to find a wasp’s home, you just need to put a piece of bread, smeared with jam, melon or meat in the room where they often live and watch their movement. The wasps will quickly smell the treat and fly off to treat themselves, and then fly back, and you can follow them.
Destruction of a nest with larvae
Means for destruction wasp nests quite a lot, but since over time the wasps have mutated and become more resistant to the effects of chemical components, a higher concentration of dangerous compounds is added to the substances, which can also harm human health.
Wasp larvae respond well to classic aerosols, for example, Dichlorvos, Raptor, Varana, etc. - they can be found in any grocery store. WITH widespread Such means will not cope with insects, but you can easily destroy a small nest located on a balcony, in an apartment, or in the attic. Enhanced Effect active ingredients have indoors.
More effective methods getting rid of a nest with pupae:
- Pesticides - experts recommend using them if the fight against flying pests has been going on for a long time and is not at all in your favor. Aerosol is sprayed on outer part nests and inside. After 2-3 days, insects will die, even those that are a short time fly into the house. After this, it will be possible to remove the nest;
- Insecticidal dust - you need to generously treat the “entrance” to the home and, just in case, from above. The poison will penetrate inside the house on the bodies of the wasps and have an effect on other individuals, including the larvae. This tool The good thing is that the insects die without them noticing.
There are also several traditional methods to get rid of wasps. Experts warn that these methods are used only if the pests have settled in your home for the first time and have not yet multiplied too much.
Home control methods include the following:
- The smell of burnt pine needles - this method of control is suitable for those who do not want to destroy insects and for residents of private houses. If the wasps have settled near the stove, then you need to drown it with pine branches until the wasps fly away. Negative trait– this method will not help immediately and is not available to everyone;
- Tree resin - a red thread is treated with resin and stretched from the nest to the fruit tree;
- Foam is a quick and rather ruthless way to close the entrance and exit from a home polyurethane foam completely, without leaving a single crack, after which the nest is “cut off” and taken to a safe distance;
- Hot water – the nest must be poured with boiling water and taken out of the home. This method very risky, since such an attack on the shelter will enrage them, so before carrying out the procedure it is necessary to wear a protective suit;
- Bag - cover the nest with a thick bag, disconnect it from the surface, seal it with tape at the base and burn it. This method requires quick reactions;
- Kerosene – treat the nest with kerosene, after a while the wasps will die and you can get rid of their shelter.
Conclusion
What do wasp larvae look like to be able to recognize them? They differ little from adult individuals, only they do not have developed legs and wings. But by destroying one larva, you will not be able to get rid of the wasp invasion, so you need to influence the nest itself using folk or chemical methods.
Video: Large wasp larvae
What do wasps make their nests from? Completed by Svetlana Chizh, 7th grade student of State Budgetary Educational Institution Secondary School No. 377 of the Kirov District. Supervisor E.A. Stepanova.
In the summer, I discovered a wasp’s nest right in my apartment... The wasps made it on a thick curtain, in a secluded, dark corner. The nest was very small, it was not even a nest, but a clutch for eggs, around which the nest itself was formed. The nest looks like ordinary paper! I have questions: What is a wasp nest, how do wasps make it. Why did the wasp first lay eggs and only then begin to build the walls of the nest? Where in nature can an insect get paper if it is an artificial material? What advantage does a wasp have by designing a nest where the entrance is at the bottom?
The purpose of my work: To study the structure of a wasp nest, and to find out whether there is any benefit from wasps. Tasks: 1) study the literature and find out which species of wasps make nests 2) find out what material the wasps build their nests from 3) why the nests differ in color 4) find out is there any benefit from a wasp's nest
At the first stage, a survey of people was conducted to find out their attitude towards wasps. When asked about the benefits or harm of wasps, opinions differed
Second stage: there are about 20 thousand species of wasps in nature, but paper (or social) wasps build such a nest
What material does the wasp make its nest from? The wasp separates with its jaws small pieces wood, thoroughly rubs them with saliva, and then applies a thin layer to the nest. The resulting dried mass resembles rough wrapping paper. You can even write on it.
Third stage: studying the structure of the wasp nest. The surface of the nest was gray and had brown, white, and green stripes.
Studying the properties of a wasp nest: 1) Having sprayed the nest with water, I found that the water rolled down in drops 2) I put pieces of the nest into the water, they did not immediately, but they got wet and floated on the surface of the water. 3) Dipping the pieces into the solution of hydrochloric acid, discovered that nothing happened to them either.
Stage four: Studying the structure of the nest Having cut the paper layers, I found cells of the correct hexagonal shape. The cells are located horizontally. The entrance to the nest is located from below for ease of entry. The first row of cells is attached to the surface, then the second tier is suspended from it, and so on as the family grows. It turns out to be a multi-story “house”.
Why are nests needed? Wasps hatch their larvae in nests. Wasp larvae are fed with caterpillars and other insects, chewing them thoroughly. To feed all the larvae, you need to prepare a large amount of supplies, so they will destroy great amount harmful insects.
Conclusions: Nests are built by paper wasps The nest of wasps is made of a paper-like substance The nest has a very complex design, the color of the nest depends on the building material that the wasps collected. Wasps are food for birds. Destroying wasps means disturbing the environment, because in our gardens and vegetable gardens there will be more harmful insects eating the crop, and birds will not have enough food to feed their chicks.