How Long Does It Take For A Wasp To Die In A House

How Long Does It Take For A Wasp To Die In A House

Queen wasps can live for up to a year, which is a long time if one gets into your home. Worker wasps don’t share the long life of a queen.

Fortunately, regardless of type or species, there are numerous ways to get rid of wasps safely, so they don’t sting you. How long does it take for a wasp to die in a house?

A wasp that enters your house will die within 3-4 days without food and water. A well-fed worker wasp can survive inside a house between 12 and 22 days, while a queen can live a full year if they find food and water. If they build a nest inside, wasps can live for months and thrive in your home.

How Long Does It Take A Wasp To Die Inside

Depending on the circumstances, a wasp in a house can die sooner or live longer than its outdoor counterpart. While the lifespan doesn’t change, the conditions for thriving make a significant difference to the wasp.

For example, worker wasps don’t do well when it freezes. If a worker got inside your house just before a hard freeze, it would probably live longer.

Likewise, a wasp needs food to live, so it matters whether they can find it in your house.

According to BioKids from The University of Michigan, “Adult parasitic wasps mostly just drink nectar. Most non-parasitic wasps are predators and scavengers. They feed on dead animals, or hunt insects and spiders, and use their sting to paralyze their prey.”

If you have bugs in your house, wasps can thrive.

The other thing wasps need to survive in your house is water. Not only do wasps drink water, but they use it for other things like mixing with wood pulp to make their nests.

However, due to their size, wasps only need to find a few drops at a time.

How Long Can A Wasp Live Indoors

A wasp can live its entire life indoors. Especially if the wasp has an indoor nest, then not only can it survive and thrive in your home, but the wasp will contribute to future generations of wasps in your area.

Wasps don’t require being outdoors.

Regrettably, there’s nothing outside that a lucky wasp can’t also find in most human habitations. They need food, water, and a place to build a home.

Some wasps need more access to fruit and flowers than others, but people often have these indoors, and every human dwelling gets insects indoors sometimes.

Why Do Wasps Die Indoors

Wasps die indoors for several reasons. From the natural to the intentional, I’ve made a quick list of why wasps die inside houses. However, you should still remove any wasps you find in your home.

  • Although it’s undeniable, you can kill a wasp with pesticides or even unintentionally poison it with human household products.
  • Lack of water will kill any creature that drinks. The technical cause of death, in this case, is dehydration.
  • Sometimes the wasp can’t find a ready food source. Starvation is an unpleasant way to die.
  • Pets like cats will often hunt and kill a wasp. However, you should keep pets and children away from wasps as they can get hurt badly by repeated stings.
  • If a wasp is trapped in a small, sealed area or container, it will eventually run out of air and die of suffocation.
  • Finally, a wasp will die of old age in your house if nothing else goes wrong.

What Temperature Do Wasps Die

Wasps aren’t as tough as they look. In fact, once temperatures reach fifty or less, they begin to have serious trouble flying, though they can still survive. Worker wasps will die if it freezes.

The queens can hibernate and survive. According to Wasp Removal, “Most hibernating queen wasps do die over the winter, but this mortality is not due to severe weather but predation by other insects such as spiders.”

Hibernating in your house might be safer for her if you don’t have spiders.

How Long Can A Wasp Live Without Food or Water

Despite the tough outer chitin exoskeleton and the scary stingers, wasps are surprisingly delicate insects that don’t live for long if deprived of the essentials.

Some species can last weeks or months without food and water, but wasps can’t live that long. Typically a wasp will starve in around 10 days, and it may dehydrate sooner.

How Long Does It Take For A Wasp To Suffocate

Many people make the mistake of thinking they can vacuum up a wasp, and it will quickly suffocate. Unfortunately, a vacuum canister or bag has lots of air.

Wasps in vacuums can survive for a couple of months if there’s a little water and some bugs to eat.

What about trapping it in a smaller container? Placing a cup over a wasp may leave an air gap, so this method is ineffective.

If you trap it in a jar, then the wasp may live for a day or two before it runs out of oxygen.

How Long Can A Wasp Live Trapped In A Window

If you have a wasp trapped between a window and screen, it is different than when it’s trapped between two panes of glass.

When stuck between two glass surfaces, most wasps will die in two to three days. Sadly, they can live a little longer if they ate a big meal and had plenty of water right before getting trapped.

A wasp trapped between a screen and window may survive longer. Dew condenses on screens, which can offer the wasp a much-needed drink of water.

In some cases, dead bugs in the frame and tiny insects that squeeze through the mesh could even provide the unfortunate wasp with a food source.

The wasp will probably still live 12 to 22 days as long as it has food and water.

Helpful Tips To Know About How Long It Takes For A Wasp To Die In A House

Wasps are intimidating, and doubly so if you’ve ever been stung, but you should never leave them in your home.

Simply waiting around for the wasp to die can take a very long time, and you remain at risk as long as the wasp flies free.

Here are some helpful tips to know about how long it takes for a wasp to die in a house.

  • The oldest known wasp lived for over five hundred days, or about a year and a half. Notably, that wasp was in captivity.
  • Wasps tend to die faster when they are alone than they do in groups. I could not say whether this is because of mutual protection, shared food, or because they are social and need company. However, solo wasps die younger or faster than nests or those with companions.
  • Alarmingly, wasps can learn to recognize human faces. It’s best to eliminate a wasp in your home quickly and permanently. Otherwise, it might remember you are dangerous and be more aggressive in the future.

Final Thoughts

So long as a wasp that has wandered indoors has access to food such as fruit and other insects, it’s not going to die out of courtesy to you.

Wasps are hardy creatures that can sometimes hibernate through the winter. Especially if you get a queen wasp in your home, she could set up a whole nest.

Don’t try to wait out the wasp, hoping it will die. Fortunately, wasps rarely nest indoors. I recommend catching or killing your indoor wasps promptly for your safety since they have a nasty sting, and unlike bees, a frightened wasp can sting many times.

Ted Smith

My name is Ted Smith and I’m the creator of AnimalThrill.com. I have a passion for educating people about animals and wildlife. I have been working with the National Wildlife Federation for the past 10 years and I became a wildlife blogger to help people become excited about animals and encouraged to care for these wonderful creatures.

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