A Common Wasp chewing wood to make a "paper" nest in a domestic garden.

To protect the air quality for my neighbours' lungs in an urban area, I never have bonfires: prunings and branches are piled up to rot naturally.  Common wasps, Vespula vulgaris, are making a nest in there somewhere and one was chewing a dead clipping -- presumably to make new cells from the "paper chewing".  They are fascinating insects.

Wasps may be a pain at a BBQ yet they do great work in the ecosystem in controlling caterpillars.

They are not usually aggressive and I was working today up a ladder a meter from this nest site pruning large tree branches.  I was no threat to them and they didn't sting me.  I was ready to run at any time though! 

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