its scarry

Nice shot! I hope the nest isn't near any homes :x

It's right outside my front door actually.

They don't bother me.

Well, as long as you're cool about it :3

Simply amazing

Well, one bothered me. :(
I don't trust a wasp nest near a door. That's just askin' for trouble.
I should know... I can still remember the sting vividly and all I did was open the door to go outside.

Damn wasp.

Wow. I actually think this turned out really well! How close did you have to get to take it, though? I do believe I would have been standing, oooh, at least 400ft. away! Those suckers scare me.

I'm not too afraid of them, but as I was precariously perched on a stepladder, I was more worried about falling off reacting to a sting more so than being stung.

I didn't get as close as I could have or would have liked. So I was about 2 feet away or so.

oh lovely, now an other thing to add in the reason i like spring! photos from you starting again!

She looks like she's saying "You want a piece of me? Come a bit closer and see what happens to ya!"

And THAT would be where you take the photo, walk over to the shelf and get the wasp spray. XD

Bees I like (have quite a few photos in my gallery) but wasps can go catch on fire. I've been stung by them too many times for no reason at all.

I'll leave her be. Wasps have benefits.

Interesting how this east coast strain seems much darker than the western strains: http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/hymeno.....sExclamans.htm

As always, I remain in awe of your insect photos.

<3

Amazing photo. She does seem a little pissy! I suppose it's good she is a paper wasp, I believe they're less aggressive, so you were probably able to get as close as you did 'cause of that.

So glad it's insectyuggybug season again, I look forward to the coming photos. =D

Stunning shot. :D They have such interesting nests.

This is a new nest. I imagine it will grow over time.

A proud new homeowner!

Damn but I love hymenotera!

Yes - I keep some around as well. We get on very happily, and the local ones prey on redback spiders, which is a useful thing!

BEEEESS!!!!! (OK, wasps, but STILL!) OMG FLYING STINGING INSECTS!

Gah, such cool looking creatures.

Man, this shot is great for the egg if nothing else.

I may have to try for more shots this weekend.

These things scare the shit out of me. Growing up in Georgia I got stung a few too many times.

I was reading through the comments, and I'm surprised you were able to even get that close. I swear if I'm even ten feet away from them they start to fly at me. xD

This is a great photo though, I've never seen the little eggs like that.

Augh a colony of these things chewed their way through the outside of the house and into my bedroom when I was a little kid. D: Still didn't make me scared of bugs though. ;)

This is a neat photo.

i think this is a very good photo. the look of the queen is "very pissed off." i'm surprised you managed to get out of there alive. XD this makes me think you were inside her castle and she was calling her guards to get you.

This reminds me of my old house, are back door was constantly swarmed by wasps/hornets because there was work being done on the house and they kept putting their nest in it. I walked by it one time and a hornet flew over to me and I tried to be as still as possible and be calm as I watched it land on my finger and sting it.... So lol being calm and still doesn't always work.

I got stung by one of these in the neck yesterday. I swear I heard it laughing as it flew away. >_<

Ouch :/

Oooh! You got to see the eggs! I had a lovely queen make a nest on my cactus a few years back and we left her alone for quite a while, but the nest was getting too large and we were living in an apartment building with a lot of kids at the time. It was only a matter of time before someone would have found the nest and explored it and gotten stung. The little queen was surprisingly mellow, though- she let me get close, hang around day after day, and when her first set of babies hatched, they seemed to take me in stride. It was neat. We re-located the nest and it's residents by catching them in the morning on a cool day and keeping them all in a cooler with an ice-pack to keep them calm and sleepy, then moved them to a wild area and released them once we tied the nest in a quiet spot. I don't know how well it worked, though- the queen and her brood flew off right away once we set them on their nest and I have no idea if they were able to find it again, poor dears.

Yeah most wasps aren't terribly aggressive I've found. Some species can be, especially if you actively disturb a nest.

Not sure how well relocation works.

Well, we'd tried to research it first before trying it and found at least one fellow who was able to do it with success. I dunno, it might work, if you're really cautious about how you go about it.

Hornets, on the other hand, those beasties are just plain mean- pushiest insects I've ever known. LOL

We made sure to catch the mum and her hatchlings first before moving the nest at all-- that might make a difference in aggression-level.

Hersey, sexy lady... Whoops, PSY attack...

Anyways, she's a beauty

F***ing autocorrect...