{"id":1238,"date":"2026-07-29T16:06:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T16:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/07\/29\/where-have-all-the-wasps-gone-this-summer\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T16:06:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T16:06:28","slug":"where-have-all-the-wasps-gone-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/07\/29\/where-have-all-the-wasps-gone-this-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Where have all the wasps gone this summer?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/span> Dabuch\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Summer can be lovely \u2013 until a wasp turns up. Whether they present as an irritating picnic visitor or an uninvited loft guest, common social wasps are as much a part of our summer as festivals, sun cream and the growing despair of how to entertain children who\u2019ve forgotten how to be bored.<\/p>\n

But summer 2026 is breaking the norm, and there don\u2019t seem to be many wasps<\/a> about. As a wasp biologist, I\u2019ve noticed it acutely, because my students need wasps for their experiments, and we simply can\u2019t find them. <\/p>\n

A second sign that something is wrong is the absence of wasp stories in the media. Wasps tend to be more active in warmer weather. Their colonies grow faster and bigger, and they end up making news headlines by bothering humans. This time last year \u2013 also a warm spring and hot summer \u2013 the media airwaves were filled with \u201cplagues of wasps\u201d stories. Now, even professional pest-controllers<\/a> tell me it\u2019s a quiet year with very few requests to remove wasp nests.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, these are anecdotes not data: the Big Wasp Survey \u2013 the only national
\nwasp monitoring survey \u2013 is yet to start sampling this summer. But the signs are not good.<\/p>\n

If data back this up, their absence worries me greatly because \u2013 love them or hate them \u2013 wasps are important in ecosystems<\/a> as pest-controllers, pollinators and decomposers.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s happening?<\/h2>\n

Spring started well for wasps. In the warm, dry spring a glut of glorious foundresses \u2013 new queens \u2013 emerged from hibernation to start their nests alone, carrying out all the nest building, egg laying, foraging and brood rearing. This nest-founding period is a risky time. If a new queen survives until her first brood emerges as adult workers, though, then the odds are in her favour as she no longer needs to undertake risky foraging. <\/p>\n

But spring 2026 was strange: the warm, dry start should have been good. Warm, dry spring weather improves a nest\u2019s chance of survival as it ensures a good nectar supply for the queen to develop her ovaries and good prey populations for her to feed the brood. But we experienced unprecedented heat for the time of year, punctuated by cold, damp days and followed by unexpectedly chilly nights. <\/p>\n

Such weather extremes may have caused queens to abandon their nests<\/a> or die, reducing the initial spring queen bounty to a more modest population.<\/p>\n

Temperature tolerance<\/h2>\n

And then came the heatwave. And another. And another. Some insects may benefit
\nfrom this. Wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation is hoping 2026 could be a \u201cbumper summer<\/a> of butterflies\u201d because warm, dry days mean uninterrupted foraging, mating and egg-laying. <\/p>\n

But all insects have a thermal tolerance called critical thermal maximum (CTmax). If their CTmax is exceeded, insects succumb to desiccation, muscle spasms and eventual stupor. <\/p>\n

For honeybees, this is around 49\u00b0C \u2013 which might sound high, yet ground surfaces exceeded 50\u00b0C in the UK heatwaves this summer. But the temperature doesn\u2019t need to reach an animal\u2019s CTmax to affect their productivity and behaviour. For example, bumblebee cognition<\/a> and foraging efficiency<\/a> are impaired by heatwaves of 32\u00b0C. <\/p>\n

Bumblebee Conservation Trust raised concerns that 2026 may exacerbate a declining trend in bumblebee populations as flowers wither<\/a> and bees fail to forage effectively.<\/p>\n

Wasps are thought to be quite resilient to extreme weather. They are one of the most successful invasive species<\/a> around the globe. And as a social insect, their thermoregulation behaviour<\/a> (such as wing fanning to cool the larvae) and nest architecture (which has insulating envelopes surrounding the brood combs) may help buffer any environmental perturbations. <\/p>\n

Insects also have waxy molecules called cuticular hydrocarbons that coat their exoskeletons protecting them from desiccation. Social wasp cuticular hydrocarbons change structure in response<\/a> to heat, better protecting them from desiccation in excessive heat. <\/p>\n

Their varied diets should also buffer them from imbalances in prey populations. However, their CTmax may be lower than other social insects \u2013 at around 45\u00b0C<\/a> \u2013 which may have made them especially vulnerable to the high ground temperatures of the 2026 heatwaves.<\/p>\n

Why are the wasps so small?<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s something else that I\u2019ve noticed: the few wasps I\u2019ve seen are rather small. The adult size of many insects is fixed during their development, depending on the quality and quantity of food they receive as larvae. Wasps don\u2019t get bigger once they\u2019ve pupated. <\/p>\n

The first workers to emerge in spring are usually small because the queen is limited in how much food she can provide for them alone. But by early August, the foraging capacity of the colony has increased exponentially, brood are better fed and the emerging workers are substantially larger.<\/p>\n

So why are we still seeing \u201cspring-sized\u201d wasps? It\u2019s possible that limited diversity and abundance of prey may mean their nutrition is restricted<\/a>. The problem may also be more directly linked to heat. Insect larvae reared at higher temperatures will develop faster and reach pupation at a smaller size. <\/p>\n

Global warming is thought to explain the trend in social wasps shrinking<\/a> in size over the last 100 years. We could be seeing this in real-time this year. <\/p>\n

How can you help wasps?<\/h2>\n

Share your alfresco meal with a wasp. When it approaches, don\u2019t flap it away. Watch to see what it wants. In the absence of wild prey, it might be desperate for some protein (your picnic ham) to feed her brood. In the absence of flowers for nectar, it might be in need of something sugary (some jam) for her own nutrition.<\/p>\n

My research team would also like you to share your wasp<\/a> observations with us, so that we can better understand these important insects. Snap a photo of her eating and submit your data to the Wasp Picnic Survey 2026: Ham or Jam?<\/a>. Keep the observations coming all summer. The wasps (and wasp scientists) will thank you.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Seirian Sumner receives funding from the UK government’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). She is a Trustee and Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, and author of the book ‘Endless Forms: Why We Should Love Wasps’<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dabuch\/Shutterstock Summer can be lovely \u2013 until a wasp turns up. Whether they present as an irritating picnic visitor or an uninvited loft guest, common social wasps are as much a part of our summer as festivals, sun cream and the growing despair of how to entertain children who\u2019ve forgotten how to be bored. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}