do they return to nests annually.
They don’t return to an an old nest – wasp colonies don’t over-winter in the way honey bees do (thats why bees make and store honey – as winter rations). With wasps only the queens hibernate the rest of the colony dies off each winter and the queen starts a new colony and builds a new nest from scratch every spring.
Rumour has it that leaving an old nest in situ deters new nests from being built as they’re quite territorial but I’m not sure how true that is.
It can be surprising how close by a nest can be and you’ll not really notice many wasps about. I had one in my workshop and had no idea it was there until I picked it up (they’d nested amongst batts of loft insulation) and tore it in half. Suddenly I was very very aware of wasps!.
By the same measure I’ve got 6 large bee hives about 50 yards from my front door and never really see bees – their range is about 3 miles radius from the hive ( about 28 square miles) so even though theres thousands of bees based in the hive they’re busy foraging over a massive area.
