photos by Greg Hofmann

06/30/03: This yellowjacket nest looks like it's made with strips of papier-mache. The wasps scrape small bundles of wood fibers from any nearby unpainted surface – tree trunks, fence posts, clothes pins – and return to the nest, where they chew it and mix it with their saliva, then add it to hive walls. They shape the hexagonal cells with their antennae. This nest is about the size of a volley ball, but spiking it is not advised.