Before we went for a walk, I started decorating our woodland Christmas tree. Then, we went for a walk. First, we stopped at the wasp nest where I got stung 7 times! Next, we looked for the nest where Billy, our dog, got stung by hornets three years ago. On our way back up, we looked at the nest where Mum got stung.
All the wasps, except the queen die in the winter. The queen leaves the colony in the winter to find a warm place for hibernating. Vespula wasps live underground. The nests we found were surrounded by roots, probably to make sure it doesn’t collapse. The wasps chew wood. Their special saliva turns it into a pulp that can be used to make a nest. Adults eat the sugars from their young and nectar. The young eat insects and spiders. Wasps help control the number of insects and spiders; each summer wasps kill 14 million kg of insect prey. Wasps also help with pollination which is where pollen from a plant lands on the sticky stigma of the same type of plant.
