This was our first summer in Door County, WI, so when the hornets and wasps appeared we thought it was normal. Then more came, and everyone in line at the hardware store was buying wasp spray. We had the normal small nests that appeared in the eaves and under the deck rail, and we seemed to be able to keep them in check.
But the mother ship was in the kindling box.
Early in the summer we saw a few wasps coming in and out of the box, but by midsummer it became apparent that we really shouldn’t open it any more until it got cold. Fall came and it seemed like it was finally time to inspect what was going on. What a treasure we found!
Because of how it had been built inside the box, we were able to pull the whole nest out intact and see some of the interior architecture.
This was the front. Such beautiful scalloping and shades of color. To the touch it was soft, papery and deceivingly strong.
The wasps entered from the canal at the top that spiraled down into the interior layers.
When the nest was pulled away from the box, it exposed some of the interior scaffolding where the young are hatched and food is stored.
Since this seemed so interesting, we dropped it off at a local nature center so all can enjoy.
I’m not entirely sure if this was a yellow jacket or bald-faced hornet nest, both of the wasp family Vespidae. They are closely related social wasps and build similar nests. There were just so many flying stinging insects around, I didn’t pay close enough attention to what was actually going in and out of the wood box. We also had plenty of paper wasps, but they build very different types of nests.
After finishing our little nature exploration, we’ve had enough of raising wasps so the box was partially dismantled and used as frame to corral my expanding composting pile.
Want to learn more? Here’s some useful links from local midwestern university extensions:
I should have had you come to our house in the summer of 2015 for a little investigative work! We had wasps everywhere (hundreds of them at a time just sitting on our patio table). I searched and searched and could not find the nest anywhere. We couldn’t even tell their flight patterns to see where they were going. Ultimately, I simply GUESSED that maybe there was a nest in the ground under my cement patio, so I made my husband spray all the cracks of the patio and around the edges. He thought he was wasting his time, but no wasps this year. . . .soooooo???? Seeing that nest of yours is really fascinating!
Sue, you were definitely not crazy! Many yellow jackets, which are wasps, do live underground in quite elaborate nests. Often times they’re not found until you run over them with a lawn mower (yep, done that before) or step into the entrance. Both are really bad, since they fiercely protect their nests. Glad you were able to solve your problem without injury and enjoyed my post.
This was so interesting, Stephanie!!!! Wow – what architects! Loved the color striations too – glad you thought to take it to the Nature Center so others could marvel too! Love your posts – thank you!
Thanks Wendy, glad you found it interesting. It not often you can safely see such a big one so close, or inside.