Queen wasp emerges from hibernation during early spring, the young queen searches for a suitable area for her colony. From chewed bark and timber mixed with saliva she makes the initial cell which is the size of a walnut, inside there are individual chambers where she lays between 10 and 20 eggs.The first brood of adult workers (sterile females) take over the task of enlarging the nest and providing food for the rest of the eggs laid by the queen.By late summer the normal size wasps nest will contain 3000 - 5000 wasps, and the nest can be in the region of 30 cm or larger.During the latter part of summer males and young queens emerge, mating occurs and the fertilised queens fly away to find suitable over winterings sites. The cooler weather will see the workers and males become sluggish and with their feeding on over ripe fruits they become aggresive towards anybody who interferes with them. Eventually with the cold weather it kills off all remaing wasps with only the fertilised queen surviving in hibernation.

Old wasps nests are not re-used although a new wasp nest can be built next to an old one.