How Long Do Wasps Live? It’s Not as Long as You Think

Wasps can be bothersome and cause painful stings, but they are essential to our biodiversity. They are important pollinators, and predatory wasps help control harmful insect pests that can destroy agricultural crops.

Learn more about different types of wasps, their life cycles, and how long they live. The information may just change your thoughts on getting rid of wasps.

How Long Do Wasps Live?

While there are more than 100,000 species of wasps around the world, we will concentrate on social wasps most commonly found around yards and gardens in the United States, such as yellow jackets, paper wasps, and European hornets.

Yellow jackets (Vespula sp.)

According to entomologist Madeline Potter, drones or worker yellow jackets usually live between 12 and 22 days. However, the queens can live up to a year.

“Queens sometimes take over the young spring nests of other yellowjacket species, killing the original queen and laying their own eggs. Eventually, the workers die off and she seeks a protected place such as a brush pile, hollow tree, or building crawlspace to spend the winter,” says Potter.

Always take precautions around yellowjackets—if the colony is disturbed, slowly walk away while protecting your face with both hands and don’t make any swift movements.

Paper Wasps (Polistes sp.)

Paper wasp queens survive the winter by nesting in protected places such as under the bark of trees or in cracks and crevices around structures.

“Paper wasps are not as defensive of a nest as hornets and yellowjackets. One may deliberately bump into an intruder as a warning before resorting to stinging,” Potter says.

In the spring, several queens commonly get together to start a new nest. Eventually, one queen will dominate the others, making them serve as workers for the new colony.

“Paper wasp drones also live around 20 days with the queen surviving around one year after overwintering,” says entomologist Eric Benson.

European Hornet (Vespa crabro)

Similar to other wasps, a colony of European hornets lasts about one year. In spring, a queen emerges from her winter hibernation spot, starts a small nest, lays eggs, and raises sterile daughter offspring (live span of 12-20 days) to take over the duties of enlarging and maintaining the nest, foraging for food, and caring for the offspring.

In the fall, males and new queens are produced to mate before the fertilized queens go into hibernation. The remainder of the workers, the old queen, and the males die from old age or freeze to death. Unlike most other stinging insects, European hornets also fly at night.

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What Kills Wasps?

The life span of a wasp is affected by temperature, predators, and environmental conditions.

• Predators: In the wild, omnivores like bears, rats, raccoons, skunks will kill and eat wasps. Reptiles like geckos, lizards, frogs, and certain birds species like the sparrow or summer tanager will feast on wasps. They can also fall prey to insects like dragonflies, praying mantises, moths, and other Vespidae species.
• Weather: Wasps are sensitive to dramatic weather changes, whether a sudden drop in temperatures or an extreme heat wave. Due to their natural life cycle, most members of the colony die due to cold weather, with the exception of the hibernating fertile queen.
• Lack of food: Without nectar or prey insects to provide nourishment to the queen or workers, the colony will die.
• Environmental hazards: The application of pesticides in or near a nest will kill wasps.
• Loss of queen: Without a steady stream of eggs from the queen wasp, the older wasps in the colony will die off and the colony will die.

When Do Wasps Die?

If a wasp nest is left undisturbed and environmental conditions are ideal, the workers will die within 12 to 22 days after they hatch from eggs. All of the workers and the queen who start a nest will die when cold temperatures arrive in late fall. The newly fertilized queen will go into winter hibernation and live approximately one year before dying of old age or cold weather.

How to Get Rid of Wasps

The best advice is to leave wasp nests alone, but sometimes they build in areas where they become more than a nuisance to people and must be eradicated. Use precautions and work at dusk when the they are the least active to get rid of wasps.

• Commercial sprays: Commercial insecticide-based wasp sprays are easy to use from as far away as 20 feet causing the wasps to drop from the nest to the ground instantly. Check the nest a few days later and repeat the treatment if needed.
• Dish soap spray: Mix two tablespoons of dishwashing liquid and one cup of water in a spray bottle to get rid of small paper wasp nests starting to form. Shake the bottle well and soak the nest.
• Wasp traps: Build your own trap or purchase commercial traps that lure wasps through a narrow opening in the trap with the scent of fruit juice or vinegar. A surfactant is added to the trap liquid to coat the wasp’s wings and make it impossible for it to fly back out.
• Essential oil spray: Mix a few drops of peppermint, clove, geranium, or lemongrass oil, two tablespoons of dishwashing liquid, and two cups of water in a spray bottle. Saturate the nest. Wasps are naturally repelled by these scents.

When to Call a Professional

If the nest is in a wall void or other inaccessible area in your home, pro entomologists recommend hiring a pest control company to do the work for you.