Hobbies And Interests

White Parts of a Wasp's Nest

Wasp nest inspire fear in some people and ideas in others. The complexity of the many different varieties of wasp nests has lent itself to serious study by engineers and architects to give them new ideas for creative construction. Not all parts of a wasp's nest are white, nor do all wasps create the same type of nest. White nests are created by the more social species of wasp, such as the paper wasp.
  1. Exterior Shell

    • The worker wasps fly out near and far from the location of their nest in search of wood that is easily chewable. They get as much of it as they can in their mouth and chew on it until it turns into a thick paste. Their glue-like saliva bonds the softened wood particles into a liquid fiber that hardens when exposed to air. The shell they build covers the nest and is remarkably rain resistant. Often, these 'shells' turn white in color as the nest ages. Some people call this shell an external envelope as the different layers can be peeled off once the nest has been safely abandoned and devoid of wasps.

    Interior Walls

    • The interior walls are made of the same material as the outer shell, although depending on the species of wasp, the designs vary widely. Some walls are built in multiple layers with intricate hallways leading up from the entrance in the bottom of the nest. There may be slight color variations as different materials are found and chewed up depending on what the worker wasps were able to find.

    Larvae Cells

    • Much like the hexagonal shapes of bee hives, wasps create small six sided cells on the interior walls of the nest. These cells house the wasp larvae, which will grow into adult wasps in a matter of a few days. Inside these cells, the worker wasps place a paralyzed grub for their young to feed on after hatching from their eggs.

    Wasp Eggs

    • Many species of wasp lay small white eggs into the larvae cells. If you are actually close enough to see these eggs, you may want to back up a bit. The worker wasps that are there to feed the larvae are also there to guard the nest and they will do so ferociously. Some wasp eggs are more yellow or even darker in color. The hornet, which is in the same family as the wasp, builds an almost cotton white nest.

    Variations

    • If a wasp colony is close to a landfill or dump with plenty of paper products being deposited regularly, it may forgo the whole wood chewing process in favor of the easier to chew paper or cardboard products. This will result in a nest built with off color materials and may actually include artificial dyes and inks that were on the pieces of paper the wasps are using.


https://www.htfbw.com © Hobbies And Interests