Homes of the Things That Sting

Summer is fast approaching and that means the appearance of bees and wasps. Many people are afraid of these insects, but most don't know that several types of bees and wasps are quite passive and will not sting unless provoked.

This entry was inspired by the sight of this house on a house.

This is the home of a Paper Organ Mud Dauber Wasp (Trypoxylon politum).  These non-aggressive, solitary wasps belong to the Crabronidae family and this includes digger wasps and sand wasps, all considered "hunter wasps". The female wasp gathers mud and builds her nest, where she deposits an egg in each nest cell. The male wasp will guard the nest and mate with the female each time she returns to the nest to feed the larvae. Spiders are the primary food for the growing larvae.
At home, we rarely use the front door as we enter the house through the garage. At some point (probably last summer, from the looks of the nest) a paper wasp created a nest on the frame of our front door. Yikes!

Paper Wasps are in the Vespidae family and the Hymenoptera order. (Bees and ants also belong in this order.) There are several species of paper wasps and all are social. An overwintering paper wasp  emerges in spring and begins building a nest. A queen gathers fibers from dead limbs, exposed boards, paper litter and plant stems. In the next phase of building the female will gather water from puddles, bird baths or other shallow water sources. Then she will regurgitate that water to connect the paper fibers of the nest and create a waterproof coating on top.  It's not long before the nest is buzzing with activity. The eggs hatch into larvae, which remain in this stage for about 2 weeks before entering the pupal stage. The queen then covers the developing pupae with more paper.

The queen continues to build nest cells and lay eggs. Meanwhile, sterile females emerge 3 weeks later from the covered cells and finish building the other nest cells that the queen started, and assist in feeding the larvae and pupae while the queen continually lays eggs. Later in the summer, the queen will lay eggs from which fertile males and females will develop. Once this happens, the queen stops laying eggs, the sterile females stop working and the males and females mate and depart the nest. The males will die during the winter but the females survive to begin the cycle again in the spring.

Did you know that you can make a Bee Box?

These boxes consist of blocks of wood with holes of varying sizes to attract a diversity of bees. These are made to attract solitary bees, who, unlike the society-minded bumblebees and honeybees, prefer to live alone. The Andrenidae and Halicitidae families are the largest solitary bee families. There are some minor behavioral differences between these families, but both nest in underground burrows. You can often find these nests in bare earth or sand. The entrances are usually the diameter of a pencil and it is not unusual to find the excavated earth piled up around the entrance.  There are many types of bee boxes you can make and some are made to place either on or in the ground.

The houses from which these insects are raised are just one aspect of their fascinating stories. There are several books and websites to learn about our wasp and bee friends. I'm still a bit squeamish around the stingers, but the more I read, the less afraid I become and the more my respect grows for these insects.