These wasps have no wax producing glands and therefore can't construct wax cones. To get round this little problem they held a meeting a few years back now I would imagine. One clever little wasp mentioned his cunning plan to resolve their housing problem. So, using their powerful jaws they scraped wood from bark and fence posts, then they had a jolly good chew whilst mixing it with their saliva, then they spread it out to make the combs, and they have never looked back. Quite an amazing structure don't you think. I don't know how long it takes them to make these nests, this one measures 53cm ( 20") circumfrence.
5 comments:
WOW!!!!!! That's impressive! But even so, I'm thankful...sorry...it's in your yard and not in mine!! I have wasps and hornets fighting over my hummingbird feeder every day. I don't think they have time to stop and develop any saliva! ^_^ And again, I'm thankful!!!
Oh wow! Look at that natural beauty-I'm with Poetess; quite impressive!!
Although if I had stumbled upon that myself, I'd have run screaming the other way because I'm allergic to bees O.o
I am also alergic to bee stings and a wasp sting is still a sting and I would be running with you :)
This is amazing. I have a similar story.
All last summer as we sat out in the sun we could hear tiny scraping sounds, the kind of sound which is barely audible but when you do hear it, it kind of drives you round the bend.
After several days we decided to try and source this weird sound and low and behold there it was - A wasp gnawing away on our bamboo strip fencing, it just collected the top shiny part of the bamboo and then would fly off and be back quite quickly to begin again.
We found out about this strange behaviour after calling the environment health people out a couple of months ago because we found a huge (papery nest just like yours) in our loft, and it he who answered our conundrum about the bamboo eating wasp and he explained when you see such behaviour going on it means only one thing - there’s a wasp nest near by, he also told us that wasps from far and wide might come and eat up your wooden bits as they kind of signal where the nearest tasty patch is. We ended up pay out £75.00 for him to take it away, not before he broke the news that the nest had been empty for some time and had probably dropped from a corner in our rafters and that’s how we suddenly saw it. The quickest loss of 75 quid I can remember.
Yikes that's a lousy way to lose £75!!! steep price to pay for an empty nest but a lesson learned and it wont happen again to you. Did you keep the nest or did he take it away with him.? Never knew they chewed bamboo either. Thanks so much for your story Mary
Post a Comment