Q: How do Wasps and Bees create their hives?

Asked by: Adam Ellison

The first thing you think when you watch a troublesome wasp or bee squeeze between the tiles of your roof and into your attic, back to the buzzing nest that has grown within, probably isn’t, ‘I wonder how they constructed their home?’ It’s more likely, ‘S**t! How do I get rid of that!’ So leaving behind their label as pests and our fear of being stung, this article takes a more curious stance - investigating the building methods used by these brightly coloured social insects.

Not all bees and wasps construct their homes; some solitary bees and wasps not only have to live a lonely life, but also get lumbered with the bad press that their social, party-throwing cousins create when they choose your attic for their new Grand Designs project. The honeybee, a social species that does build its own home, ‘construct their nests in tree hollows or more recently in man-made structures’ (Richard Kingsley 2001). After they have ‘identified a suitable site, honeybees scrape off any loose wood or other debris and coat the interior surface with propolis, or dried tree resin. They then starting generating beeswax to build the combs’ (www.pbs.org). Beeswax is a by-product of the honey manufacturing process and is mixed with saliva to make it more malleable. Amazingly, the hexagonal cells of the honeycomb, ‘are angled upward slightly to prevent honey running out’ (Richard Kingsley 2001), and the ‘bees use their own heads as a tool to measure the incline’ (Richard Kingsley 2001). The hive is also kept at a constant temperature of 95 degrees Fahrenheit, as the beeswax-fabricated walls become brittle at low temperatures. 

Social wasps differ to honeybees in the construction of their homes, instead building their hives with horizontal layers rather than vertical combs.

‘Using simple wood fibers to make a paper pulp, these insects create complex structures that serve as both their home and nursery. Each wasp builds thin sheets of paper to create the inner cells or the outer covering of the hive, taking turns at this work until it is completed’ 

(Frank Whittemore 2010).

Different species of wasp have different styles of nest. The paper wasp creates a flat hive that is only one cell deep and is open to the elements. The yellow jacket wasp builds a hive with layers which are covered all the way around and the hornet prefers to make large, egg-shaped nests with a singular entrance at the bottom.

So next time you hire an exterminator to eliminate the threat of swarming bees and wasps, spare a thought for the amazing wax and paper architects that have constructed such wonders in your badly built attic.