We have quite the specimen in one of our trees right now.
The man saw it while he was doing some string trimming and other sprucing for our cookout. He is way more observant than I am. Left to me this would have gone unnoticed, even though as the resident gardener I generally spend more time outdoors.
We weren’t sure if it was a wasp nest or a hornet nest. As usual, I turned to the great google and I am fairly certain this is the nest of a bald-faced hornet, which is actually a wasp. Here is one of the sources that provided some great information.
Bald-faced hornets tend to build their nests outdoors and high up, such as in trees. This nest could reach two feet in size by the end of the summer!
I was able to get some pretty good photos with a zoom lens, although I would love to peer inside that thing. Ain’t happening. I am not about to get too close to this nest, even if i could reach it.
Upon reviewing my photos, I was really excited to see that I captured one of the insects on its way into the nest. You can click on the photo to see an enlargement.
According to the Penn State link (again, here):
“Workers are very active outside the nest during the daylight hours of the summer. At night, they are active inside the nest caring for the larvae and pupae, and repairing and expanding the structure of the nest. During the day there is a constant flow of Workers in and out of the nest. These Workers are bringing food into the nest (flower nectar, fruit pulp, tree sap, and a great variety of insects (especially dipterans!) upon which they prey. Larvae are fed a rich mash of crushed up insects gathered by and fed to them by the Workers.”
All in all, way cool.
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