The wasp factory

She who must be obeyed shouted at me a lot today. First she shouted that there was a butterfly waiting to be photographed in the garden. Then it was a dragonfly. Then it was a gang of paper wasps building a nest. At the time I was trying to paint a wall; but the brush was dropped in pursuit of targets and a few paint runs were the result. Never mind, it was worth it, particularly the wasps.

Their construction was taking place on a leaf outside the house.

I wanted to get closer, but my wife was very wary. She was initially convinced that their sting was very painful (possibly true); but as I edger closer she upped the threat level to hospitalisation and probably death. Fortunately I did not have to test out her theories, but I did get some close-up shots.

Favourite was a shot of a little chap the size of my finger nail who had been tasked with monitoring my behaviour and would no doubt have taken me on had I got too close:

Even did a “stuff of nightmares” black and white version:

Thanks to my wife for discovering these most excellent little creatures.

Comments 🔗

2014-10-28 | Kevin says

Cracking images. Maybe you could get just a little closer, measure the distance at which you got stung and then we’d all know for future reference.

2014-10-28 | Chang Noi says

This begs for a time-lapse of the completion of the factory … Stunning beautiful photos and amazing beez.

2014-10-29 | BlogDaz says

I think the look on your little monitoring friends face more than suggests “that’s close enough pal”

2014-10-30 | Mike says

Very nice.

2014-10-31 | Billy the Brush says

Maybe time to reconsider your decision to abandon apartment dwelling ?

2014-10-31 | Spike says

Not at all; it’s wonderful having my own little macro zoo on my doorstep. The battle is to stop gardeners killing everything.

2014-11-04 | ChristianPFC says

How is a leaf going to support a nest? Is it a big leaf and a small nest?

I was stung by wasps several times, when I had not other choice than walking a meter under their nest on an excursion last year.

2014-11-05 | Spike says

They are very very small wasps on a very large leaf. They are presumably good enough engineers to know what will work.