Social wasps (called yellow-jackets in some places) live in colonies consisting of hundreds or thousands of more-or-less sterile female workers and their much larger mother, the egg-laying queen.

They will settle anywhere, with some species preferring hollow trees, rock crevices or manmade structures. Some choose to nest underground. The process begins when a queen wasp emerges from ...

If the queen can't find a nest site and gather enough resources, or perishes before workers emerge, the colony will fail before it even gets started. Like butterflies, wasps and bees start life as ...

As the weather heats up bee and wasp queens emerge from hibernation in search of a place to start their nests.

But only some will survive the winter. Those that do, emerge when the weather warms up. These female wasps begin to form new colonies. After building a small nest, the new queen lays eggs of the first ...

If the queen can’t find a nest site and gather enough resources, or perishes before workers emerge, the colony will fail before it even gets started. Like butterflies, wasps and bees start life ...