Waspie in the window

Still in bed but I did manage to sit on the doorstep this afternoon when I let Little Dog out. While I was hoping that a butterfly would drop in and wondering what possible interesting things there could be apart from the persistent blackbird hoovering up whatever food I put out, a two foot long wasp homed in right next to me.  OK, so two feet is a little exaggeration but, it was most certainly a queen and she snuck into the opened bag of bark chips that I'd purposefully folded over earlier this year for her very exclusion.

I wondered for a while if she were stripping the wood for a nest somewhere but she seemed rather a long time.  

I got the scissors.

I made her a little annoyed and she came out for a buzz around.  I was in no position to leg it so I worked more slowly.  Bit by bit, I cut back the sides of the bag suspecting that she was building a nest from the roof of the bag.  

Sure enough, eventually, I uncovered her beautiful paper structure but I'm afraid she wasn't setting up residency here.  After taking a few photos of her tree house and her working behind the window, I patiently waited for her to leave and took the scissors to the strand attached to the ceiling, bringing the nest inside.

And shut the back door.

They are incredibly beautiful hexagonal creations and I felt guilty when I spotted a dozen or so eggs and larvae wriggling inside.  Another couple of photos and I decided to put them back into the food chain near the blackbird zone.

Not daring to go out of the same door, I went out of the French doors and spotted queenie buzzing round trying to get back into the bag I'd demolished. Hopefully, she'll find somewhere more suitable to continue laying the 3000 to 8000 eggs that I have since read she was starting out on.

Wiki on wasps was fascinating but I'm left with the thought "Females sting readily and repeatedly" from Rentokil and wondering when I should start using the back door again.