What do bees and wasps do for winter?
Generally wasps do not have a mating flight. Instead they reproduce between a single queen and a male drone in the vicinity of their nesting area. After successfully mating the drones sperm cells are stored in a tightly packed ball inside the queen. The sperm are kept stored in a dormant state until the following spring. At a certain time of year (often around autumn time) the bulk of the wasp colony dies away leaving only the young mated queens alive. During this time they leave the nest and find a suitable area to hibernate for the winter. After emerging from hibernation during early spring the young queens search for a suitable nesting site. Upon finding an area for her future colony the queen usually constructs a basic paper nest into which she will begin to lay eggs. This varies from species to species in specifics as not all wasps live in paper nests.
