Honeybee hives are not wasp nests.

A wasp nest gathered off our property after the 2022 season ended.

This year after all the leaves fell off the trees, we found a nest that was inhabited by wasps. This paper wasp nest was active when we initially noticed it but as the days and nights got colder the inhabitants filtered out and we collected it for our future educational purposes. This nest was about 4 feet off the ground and very large. Bigger than the size of an average adult human head for scale.

Fun fact about wasps: Unlike honeybees’ wasps do not work together to survive the winter. They all die with the exception of the queen. The queen leaves the nest to go burrow underground and survive the winter on her own. In the spring time she emerges and finds a new home to start fresh.

Wasps do not utilize their old nests the next year. So, even though we collected this particular nest off our property once it was vacant (we also did it at night, in a light drizzle, just in case) it was not going to be utilized again in the 2023 season.

If you have an active wasp nest and it’s out of the way, you can leave it alone and it will be vacated by the end of the year. With that in mind, if you get to these nests early enough, when they are still very small it is best to relocate or eradicate them before they get to this size.

This nest, if encountered by anyone passing by in the woods would cause some serious harm to the unsuspecting individual. Wasps can get quite aggressive with their territories and again, unlike honeybees, they can sting more than once. Whereas a honeybee loses its barbed stinger and the lower abdomen detaches killing the bee. This results in honeybees being much more docile than wasps because one sting is a kamikaze mission for them. Though, there are instances of aggressive honeybees (we’ll do an article about Africanized bees in the future) we have, for the most part, bred this trait out of the honeybee.

We do handle certain nests like this and under the right circumstances and would be happy to guide anyone through the process. In the active season a wasp nest is no tedious task and we take them very seriously. With that being said, if you have one of these bad boys on your property, disturbing your peace, feel free to reach out to us and we will help the best possible way we can.

Happy Keeping!

Huskees&Bees LLC