Wasp Nest

Just as we were settling in for our recent weekend at the farm I noticed this wasp nest right outside the back door.

We have lots of mud nests but I hadn't seen one of these "paper nests" here before.
I did think however that, unlike the mud nest building insects, this sort sting.

On the advice of my brother in law we waited till bedtime to spray it. Lucky we did as that stirred them up enough but they were all inside and didn't really stand a chance.

Of course this got me wondering about how they build the nests and there is some fascinating stuff on the Internet. Apparently they gather shavings of wood and mix it with saliva.

I also discovered that the mud wasps paralyse but not kill their prey (spiders :-)) and encase them live in the mud for the larvae to feed on.
It's important that they aren't dead as not good to eat when they decompose. I'm not sure how long they last being eaten at!

The things you learn because of Blip!!