A Wasp Builds a Nest: See Inside a Paper Wasp's Nest and Watch It Grow

Children (and adults, too) have become aware of the ecological importance of bees. Wasps are ecologically important, too. They pollinate plants and provide pest control by eating insects and feeding them to their young.

Paper wasps construct open-celled paper nests. A mated female wasp -- the queen -- starts the nest by chewing wood fibers into a pulp to build paper layers. As soon as she has built enough of the nest, she lays some eggs which grow into young female wasps. They lay more eggs, mostly males, and these become workers whose job is to build the nest for the growing colony. It can end up being quite large. Come winter, the old queen and the workers die and the young females hibernate. In spring, they will be new queens that will build their own nest for a new wasp colony.