Wasps With Nothing Left To Do

It's early October in Wisconsin and the cold weather is coming on.  Under the eaves and in a few other places, paper wasps have reached the end of another season. 

The queens have already flown away to hibernate for the winter, leaving the workers with nothing to do.  No eggs or larvae to tend and no need to expand the hive.  

They appear to seek food because I see them on the few flowers that are still out but when at the nest, they tend to sit on top where gravity is friendlier.

Their lives are over but they don't know it.  Soon the last will perish in the below freezing temperatures that are just around the corner.