77927 Paper Wasp Nest
October 1998. I visited my friend Pam in Vancouver. A colony of Yellow Jackets had built their nest outside the sliding glass doors that opened onto the sundeck of her condo. What a structure! It was enormous, at least 15-20 inches in diameter, its paper surface an intricately patterned maze of whorls and flow lines.
I set up my tripod with the 105mm macro lens. Fall is the season when most wasp stings occur, because the young, fertilized queens abandon the colony around this time and fly off to mate and then find a protected place to spend the winter. While the social order begins to break down - no more young to feed, no purpose - food sources become scarce. None of the workers, nor the old queen, will survive winter. They are easily agitated at this time of year; don't mess with them.
For some reason, I wasn't stung. I moved slowly but worked fast. Wasps create the "paper" for their nests by chewing plant fibres and mixing them with their saliva, and it was obvious that the materials for their nest came from many different sources. The wood rail on Pam's deck showed long scrape marks about the width of a wasp's mandibles. Functionality aside, I thought their nest was one of the most beautiful natural objects I had ever seen.
Photographed in Vancouver, BC, on Fujichrome Provia 100; scanned from the original slide. The nest was in deep shade, so exposure was approximately 8 seconds at f/22-32 (with lots of bracketing). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©1998 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
77927 Paper Wasp Nest
October 1998. I visited my friend Pam in Vancouver. A colony of Yellow Jackets had built their nest outside the sliding glass doors that opened onto the sundeck of her condo. What a structure! It was enormous, at least 15-20 inches in diameter, its paper surface an intricately patterned maze of whorls and flow lines.
I set up my tripod with the 105mm macro lens. Fall is the season when most wasp stings occur, because the young, fertilized queens abandon the colony around this time and fly off to mate and then find a protected place to spend the winter. While the social order begins to break down - no more young to feed, no purpose - food sources become scarce. None of the workers, nor the old queen, will survive winter. They are easily agitated at this time of year; don't mess with them.
For some reason, I wasn't stung. I moved slowly but worked fast. Wasps create the "paper" for their nests by chewing plant fibres and mixing them with their saliva, and it was obvious that the materials for their nest came from many different sources. The wood rail on Pam's deck showed long scrape marks about the width of a wasp's mandibles. Functionality aside, I thought their nest was one of the most beautiful natural objects I had ever seen.
Photographed in Vancouver, BC, on Fujichrome Provia 100; scanned from the original slide. The nest was in deep shade, so exposure was approximately 8 seconds at f/22-32 (with lots of bracketing). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©1998 James R. Page - all rights reserved.