This morning I set off to where I keep my bees with the intention of destroying a colony of wasps who'd made their home in my bait hive. While I dislike killing wasps because they have their place and as carnivorous insect they eat a lot of flies, but as they have started to take a real interest in my hive they had to go.
I guess that not that many folks get to see inside a wasp nest and thought a few pics might go down well.
The nest inside the bait hive.
Having removed the majority of the nest turning it upside down revealed this:
The structure of the nest is obvious and quite impressive. The very white blobs being sealed brood turning into adult wasps, the grubs also visible, with a few eggs to be seen in the new section of nes in the top right of the image. The next image shows them more clearly.
While I was taking these images I was wondering whether to crush the remains of the nest to make sure it was completely destroyed, ideally I'd use the grubs as bait for fishing, but I knew I wouldn't have time this weekend. While I was pondering this I became aware of snuffling and blundering noises behind me and you can imagine my surprise to see this fella.
Only a youngster, I thought to myself, your going to get a clip round the ear when you get home to your mum ya dirty stop out.
The local badgers have been quite good at clearing out any wasp nests underground, but I'd rather they didn't get a taste for breaking into hives to get at brood.
All in all a very pleasant surprise. I left the remains of the wasp nest out in the open so Brock can come back and have crunchy wasp for tea.
Al
I guess that not that many folks get to see inside a wasp nest and thought a few pics might go down well.
The nest inside the bait hive.
Having removed the majority of the nest turning it upside down revealed this:
The structure of the nest is obvious and quite impressive. The very white blobs being sealed brood turning into adult wasps, the grubs also visible, with a few eggs to be seen in the new section of nes in the top right of the image. The next image shows them more clearly.
While I was taking these images I was wondering whether to crush the remains of the nest to make sure it was completely destroyed, ideally I'd use the grubs as bait for fishing, but I knew I wouldn't have time this weekend. While I was pondering this I became aware of snuffling and blundering noises behind me and you can imagine my surprise to see this fella.
Only a youngster, I thought to myself, your going to get a clip round the ear when you get home to your mum ya dirty stop out.
The local badgers have been quite good at clearing out any wasp nests underground, but I'd rather they didn't get a taste for breaking into hives to get at brood.
All in all a very pleasant surprise. I left the remains of the wasp nest out in the open so Brock can come back and have crunchy wasp for tea.
Al