Country diary: The wasp factory is under inspection

Sandy, Bedfordshire: How does chew, spit and paste create such precision? The queen must work like a potterLifted out of a plastic tub, the wasp factory is spread out, floor by dismantled floor, over the dining room table. The all-pervading smell of damp cardboard has evaporated, replaced by a mustiness, and what look like dried mushrooms sprout from the top of each egg tray layer. I expect all of the wasps to be gone.They are not.About a month ago, I stood on top of a ladder under the eaves in front of our sparrow nest box. A queen wasp had moved in the previous summer after the birds failed, and such was her demand for space that an extension spilled out of the nest hole, the entire face encrusted with papier-mache cells. Continue reading...