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Common Wasp Andy

Common Wasp Nest.

Location: Eastleigh, Hampshire.

This paper wasp nest was created in the middle of a hedge in a back garden, and was left alone through the summer, as the nest was going to be saved for a school during the winter, when the wasps die, only the mated queens hibernate. The nests are usually created in a shed, garage, outbuilding, or even a animal burrow. I have filmed a queen wasp building a nest in my shed, but this was the first time I have seen a nest out in the open, and was a opportunity for some interesting  pictures. The nest is created from chewing wood from trees and garden fences, mixed with wasp saliva to produce a pulp, which is then added in thin swirly strips around the nest.
Wasp NestCNS2 450w

Inside a Common Wasp Nest.
Wasp NestCNS1 450w

Plustek 7300 35mm Colour Negitive Film scan.

Pictures above show the inside of a wasp nest, found from inside my father-in-laws shed and later destroyed. If he could have tolerated the nest they would have helped him as a wasp is a natural pest control eating caterpillars and other insects in his garden that eat his precious Chrysanthemum flowers, although a finished nest can contain as many as 5,000-10,00 individuals, so I don’t blame him. You can clearly see on the left picture the unfortunate worker larvae waiting to be fed, the chewed bodies of captured insects. The white sealed cell’s are cocoons spun by a full grown grub which will pupate and metamorphose into a adult wasp.
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