Wasp Nest

Can you tell how thin and delicate the nest is? If you could feel it, it is as light as air, and would feel like home-made paper. Maybe your parents will help you make paper! I'll tell you how! I might not get back to it today, but I will try to make sure to in a day or so! I promise!
Did you know that men learned how to make paper by observing paper wasps? Isn't that amazing!?
"Around A.D. 105 a Chinese court official named Ts'ai Lun observed paper wasps making a next. He experimented with mulberry bark, hemp, and rags with water, mashing various mixtures into a pulp, pressed out the liquid and hanging the thin mats up to dry.
Tree bark or bamboo was a typical source of paper in China. In Europe, linnen and cotton rags were often used.
In both cases, the fibers were beaten in water to make a pulp."
- from Paper

Wasp/Hornets Nest

I can't tell you positively what used to live in this nest, but I feel like I can guess Paper Wasps. This nest was GIGANTIC, and scattered all over a hillside. Some animal must have found it. It appeared to come from a hole in the ground that has been torn up, and the bits of nest strewn about.


Click on this picture to enlarge it, and see if you can tell where the soil is disturbed up high, and find all the bits and pieces of wasp nest that are strewn in the grass. For more information from Wikipedia, click on the name, PAPER WASP.

A closer view of the hole, do you see more nests inside?

This photo added Novemner 14, 2008 ~ Science Lady's nice husband climbed the hillside to take a picture inside the nest hole. You will want to enlarge it to see what he saw.