Danger tinder

[daveO]

It's that time of year again when all the bird boxes need emptying out and cleaning. Most of mine are near houses which makes them easy to maintain but I've got a group of 6 in an area of woodland that have to be cleaned in situ. I try to pick a mild day to do it in case I have to evict any creatures that have taken up residence since the birds left.

This year I had a bit of a surprise as I removed the door off one box to find it full of a large wasp nest.

I hadn't noticed any wasps going in or out but I was still a bit cautious removing the wooden platform inside. It turns out that the nest had either finished or had been raided by something after the grubs. The front was destroyed but the back was mostly intact and there were plenty of dead wasps inside.

and well I thought since I need to boil up some water to clean the box anyway I might as well use this nice free source of paper to get the fire going...

The best surprise though was the contents of the box below. The entrance hole has been adapted with liberally pasted mud on the inside to make more of a tunnel which has to be the work of a nuthatch, the first I've ever had nesting in my boxes.

 

[Robson Valley]

What do you suppose got into that wasp nest? With the first wet snows of winter these days, it's our shrews
that clean out the wasp nests but they leave the paperwork absolutely intact.

 

[daveO]

I'm not sure. The box is hung four metres up a large oak tree but I still find wood mice in there now and then. I'm suspecting birds though given how it was shredded so much. A small woodpecker could probably reach that far in but if the nest was finished then it might just have been a small bird looking for left over grubs. The wasp nest in the eaves of the house is still going strong though so this one may have been attacked and abandoned. Luckily for me it was anyway.

 

[Toddy]

Excellent to see Thank you for sharing so well.
Himself and I have both just commented that we'd seen a wasp today. So late on in the year is really surprising for us. We've had several frosty days, and it's sodden wet and cold.

 

[daveO]

This was the same box back when I checked it in spring 2016. I was really impressed that mice found a home that high up a tree and they'd even dragged all those leaves in there. It was still cold at the time so I left them in there but they left the box in a real mess by the time I evicted them in spring.

 

[Nice65]

I’ve had one come in the car window today. Not only did it have me flapping but any flying insect sends Mimi the Jack Russell around the twist, so she’s leaping about in the back, barking madly.

 

[Broch]

Are the big ones that come inside at the this time of year next year's queens looking for hibernation? we've had a few over the last couple of weeks.

 

[Nice65]

Are the big ones that come inside at the this time of year next year's queens looking for hibernation? we've had a few over the last couple of weeks.

Very likely to be sexually fertilised queens looking to overwinter.

https://bpca.org.uk/News-and-Blog/pestwatch-queen-wasps