You are the Queen
cartoon wasp with crown

How would YOU do as queen of a wasp colony? Find out by playing a bald-faced hornet queen. Your goal: to build a strong, safe wasp colony and produce enough queens by fall for future colonies.

As you make decisions along the way, remember these important facts about the colony's life cycle:

the ground with grass and snow

WINTER

  • A bald-faced hornet colony lasts from spring through autumn each year. Only the queen survives the winter, hibernating in a safe place.
field with grass and flowers

SPRING

  • The queen builds a small nest and lays the first eggs.
  • Female workers hatch from these eggs. They take over foraging for food and building the nest so the queen can put her energy into laying more eggs.
insects and flowers

SUMMER

  • This is an important time for feeding and growing the colony.
  • By late summer, some female larvae (hatchlings) receive more food so they can develop into queens.
  • Males are produced that can mate with the new queens.
the ground with fallen leaves

FALL

  • All the wasps in the colony die except for the new fertilized queens. They'll bury themselves and sleep until spring, when they'll start their own colonies.

Things to Remember:

  • Other animals will try to destroy your nest, so build it in a safe place.
  • If you don't have enough food to feed the hive, your colony could die without any queens.
  • Don't let winter come without queens - but you'll also need males to mate with them and workers to feed them.

 
Good Luck!

Funding provided by National Science Foundation Grant DEB-0843505.

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