Nest Building

I know many blippers, myself included, are not overly enamoured with wasps, but I thought I'd photograph this one doing something interesting.

It is gathering nesting material.

This kind of wasp builds nests out of paper.

They get the paper by gnawing at pieces of wood. In this case, the handrail on the flight of steps down from Merewood Hotel to the lower car park.

If you look carefully, just in front of the wasp's head, you will notice the wood is slightly more yellowy. This is where it has already gnawed the surface of the wood.

(You may have to look at the larger image to see it clearly)

Once it has a good supply of wood pulp, it flies back to the nest site and spits the pulp out onto the nest and fashions it with its jaws.

Then it is off to get more pulp.

The interior of the nest will become an intricate honeycomb shape.

The queen wasp will lay eggs in these "cells".

Don't worry, I'm not going off to find the nest site.

This is more than enough, thank you very much!