Embryonic Wasp Nest

Updated 30/06/2024

Two years on and we found another, in the same place and the mother wasp had decorated! Pretty, huh!

Discovered a few weeks later in the year than last time, this one was empty.

09/05/2022

A queen wasp had clearly decided that the dark warm black chest on our allotment plot was a good place to start her nest. This nest would be of the most common British wasp, the yellowjacket (Vespula vulgaris).

We certainly don't consider wasps to be enemies - they're very good for clearing allotment pests and do an amazing job in the polytunnel in particular.
 

The nest is amazing, but we had to move it otherwise it could take over the whole storage chest and filled with hundreds of wasps. The papery structure is made by the queen. We've seen her stripping our bench to make the pulp. She will have selected the location for her nest when she emerged from hibernation. She makes this small cell to lay the eggs which will become her first workers.

I think they are at pupal stage at the moment but I'm afraid that moving their nest into the hedgerow may have stopped their lifecycle. The queen was circling looking for them so perhaps she will be able to continue rearing them in that new location, but there will be predators to contend with which wasn't her plan when she chose her nest site.

I do feel guilty, but hope that either these survive or it's early enough for her to find an alternative location - away from humans.