Wasp Nest

Last week a mate showed me a wasp nest in a birdbox in a local allotment site. We stood about three feet in front of the entrance watching wasps coming and going and even though they'ed reduced the entrace hole using paper they'ed made we could see wasps just inside doing whatever wasps do when they're home. I decided to go back with some protective it -bee jacket, gloves and jeans without holes in them, to take some close up photos and video of the entrance. Would've been an interesting post. Unfortunately when I went back the wasps had been poisoned and the nest removed.I too some photos anyway. Going by their markings and the wood they've used for the nest I think they're Common Wasps (Vespula vulgaris) but it's hard to be sure.

Top of the dead nest and a few dead workers

The top of the nest was on the ground. A structure made from paper created by the wasps chewing wood. Like bees they mae hexagonal cells but they orient theirs vertically unlike honeybee worker and drone cells. They'ed made a five tier nest in the bird box and I think this was the unfinished top tier. I found the other four tiers still joined together floating in a water butt. Word to the wise: if you're throwing insecticides around keep them out of the water. The four other tiers were rectangular as you'd expect having been built in a birdbox and joined by a stem of paper in the middle -it was a bit lie a gross little accordion. You could see capped cells in which wasps larve will've been metamorphosing.

Worker Wasps and Larvae

There was a little group of dead wasps and larvae along with some of the wasp's paper that was probably over the top of the nest. You can see the size of the larvae compared to the adults.

Talking to the holder of the next plot along his comment was that if he'd known about them he'd've been happy to have the birdbox and it's compliment of wasps moved to his plot rather than poisoned. Wasps are pretty useful things for the vegetable and fruit grower, looking at a post from the resident wasp expert in the Beekeeping forum it's reported the average wasps nest consumes a staggering 4 to 5 tons of aphids in it's life cycle. That's a lot of time and money the allotment holder wouldn't have to spend on controlling aphids. Of course there's the concern about stings but I've not been stung by one for years myself -and as a beekeeper I probably meet more wasp buzzing about my hives than most.