Hello Explorers!

The past week I have been watching a founding female paper wasp build its nest on our back door. The skill of the wasp and the determination is astonishing.

Did you know that paper wasps chew up plant material, such as dead wood and plant stems, they mix it with saliva and make a form of paper to build their nests with! They have been making paper much longer than humans have.

It has been very interesting to observe how the wasp went about building the nest. She has meticulously been building the nest. Contrary to what I initially believed, she didn't start with a strong and solid basal stalk, but instead as the nest gains more cells, she strengthens and reinforces the stalk by adding more paper to it.

This is the reason why the nest is always removed from the surface that it is attached to, as the wasps need to be able to access it for the continued reinforcing of the nests basal stalk (which is the foundation of the nest)!

Now the question is, why does the founding female not build a strong and thick basal stalk immediately? I believe that this is a direct result of energy conservation. The female is putting in as little as possible energy into the nest to get the colony going as quickly as possible.

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