The wasp’s nest is in fact
only a paper moon,
built by her majesty the queen
by chewing wood, digesting it
and throwing it up.
She is the sole construction worker
and mother nature is the architect
and interior designer.

Last summer a wasp queen
tried to build her grey castle
in our tiny, stamp sized garden.
Since I don’t like killing any creature
– big  or small – and I’m a vegetarian as well –
I just carefully loosened the growing nest
on which only the ground was finished
and threw it over the flourishing hedge
to the path between our houses,
while her majesty was angrily buzzing
about my evil activities.
She returned twice but then she gave in
and likely built her summer home
in our neighbours’ garden.

After building the castle
the queen starts laying eggs
to get workers and royal staff
that can serve her.

You can’t find any honey in a wasp’s nest
since the wasps are not the least interested in flowers.
They are the wolves of the insect world,
predators eating caterpillars and small insects.
But they do have a predilection for sugar.
We all ‘know that after having them buzzing
around our heads when we were children,
sipping a soda pop in the garden at Grandma’s cottage.

Before summer is gone
the queen sees to finding her prince
to get pregnant,
and when summer eventually
is dead and gone
all the workers and the royal staff
are dead and gone as well.
The grey castle becomes a ruin
but the queen will survive
in a humble hole in the ground
and she will start a new round next summer.
Her workers and staff only live for one season
but she can live for by the most five years.

But it is really just a paper moon, that greyish wasp’s nest…