Jump menu
Lifecycle of the hornet
The lifecycle of the European Hornet
The Hornet (Vespa crabro) is a wasp, part of the Hymenoptera Order. Much bigger than Common Wasps or German Wasps but the lifecycle of the hornet is very similar.
Often people fear the hornet even more so than they do wasps, this is simply due to their size, they are often branded as being much more aggressive than other wasp species, but in our experience this is untrue. We are not suggesting that they will not defend their nest in an aggressive manner, because they will.
As with other types of wasps, the Queen hornets that have hibernated
through the winter become active in the spring as the temperature starts
to warm up.
They search for a place to start building a nest, such as a loft or shed.
Once a suitable place has been chosen (usually somewhere warm, dry and
undisturbed), the queen will start to strip wood from fence panels, windows,
sheds and other available wood sources. They chew the wood and mix it
with saliva to form a lightweight, strong and waterproof material similar
to paper Mache.
The nest starts off with a centre stalk called a petiole which is securely
attached to something strong, such as a rafter.
The queen then adds cells around this centre stalk these cells are formed
into combs which are similar to those in a Bee Hive.
Once the initial cells are constructed, the queen will begin to lay eggs
into the cells.
Whilst these eggs are incubating, the queen continues to build the nest
and new cells.
It takes between 5-8 days (depending upon ambient temperature) before
the first eggs hatch into hornet larvae.
Once hatched, the queen will feed the larvae
on a diet of chewed up insects which is high in protein. After around
two weeks the larvae are ready to pupate, they spin a silk cap over the
top of the cell and undergo transformation into adult hornets. These adults
are sterile female workers.
Once the first brood of adults has hatched, they take over the duties
of nest building and also collecting food for new larvae. The queen then
concentrates on egg laying only.
When the nest has reached its maximum size
in the autumn the worker hornets build special cells in the nest, these
are reserved for new queen larvae and also Male larvae.
Once these new queens and have hatched, pupated into fully formed Queen
hornets, they leave the nest and fly up to search for Male Drones from
other nests to mate with.
Once mated, these new queens will search out a suitable place to hibernate
over the winter. The whole cycle starts again in the spring, where each
of these new queens will start a new nest.
After the new Queen hornets have left the nest
no other eggs are laid by the original queen. The nest starts to die off
as the weather gets colder and the frosts arrive. Some nests survive longer
than others if they are located in warm loft spaces but usually by Christmas
the nests are dead, all the worker hornets and male drones along with
the original queen will have died.
hornet nests are usually bigger in size than a wasp
nest, but the amount of individuals contained within the nest is much
smaller than a wasp nest typically between 200-400 hornets per nest.