Bald Face Hornets
Common Name
Scientific Name
Bald Face Hornet
Dolichovespula maculata
Identification:
Bald Faced Hornets measure up to ¾ of an inch long, they are black, with ivory markings on their face, thorax, and abdomen. They are heavy bodied, aggressive, and wary of anything or anyone that approaches a nest. They have a non-barbed stinger, meaning they can sting multiple times and not die afterward.
Biology:
The Bald Faced Hornet life cycle is identical to that of the Paper Wasp, they are social wasps, meaning they create nests of colonies with different castes including, workers, queens, and males. The queen’s main function is to lay eggs to make the colony larger. In late summer the last set of fertilized females (queens) will find an overwinter site in a protected habitat such as a crack or crevice in a structure, under tree bark, or in attics or garages. In the spring the queen will emerge and she will select a nesting site. She will lay her eggs singly in cells and the eggs will hatch into white legless/wingless larvae.
During the time of maturity the workers are to tend to the young, build the nest, and protect the nest. Once the larvae have gone though several instars (moltings) they will paupate. After a few weeks the new adult worker wasps will come out of their cocoon and the process will begin again. At one time a nest can have 20 to 30 adult workers. In late summer the queen stops laying eggs, and in the fall the fertilized females (new queens) will find an overwintering site. The remainder of the colony will soon die off due to the onset of cold weather.
Habits:
The nest of the Bald Faced Hornet is made from a paper-like material of chewed wood and saliva from the hornet and may exceed the size of a basketball. The nest is very fragile and if it was to fall or something hit it, it could break very easily. Hornets usually build exposed, grey nests, with an opening at the bottom as the entrance in trees or shrubs. Occasionally, they will build nests under roof overhangs, in attics, crawlspaces and wall voids, or under decks or porches. Inside the nest there are compartments or cartons that hold the larvae while they develop, unlike the Paper Wasp, the heads of the larvae are NOT exposed when looking into a nest.
