All summer and autumn there were wasps flying in under the eaves, often more than 100 per minute, so I knew the nest would be big. Because a few wasps were still active in early December I waited until after a cold snap before going up to investigate. My roof is low and cramped and the nest was built around the rafters so it wasn't going to come out in one piece. This is how it looked before I started.
This is the outer insulation layer. You can see here how at one point the wasps must have changed to a different source of wood. I think the grey comes from my shed!
This shows a bit of the comb before I removed the main body of the nest.
And this is what it looks like once it is out, all made of paper. The combs are single-sided and horizontal with the cells opening downwards. This was a big nest with eight storeys of comb.
The comb is surrounded by a thick layer of very fragile insulation.
There were a few dead wasps and from looking at them I think they are common wasps (Vespula vulgaris). The nest would be a success if it produced only a couple of queens surviving the winter to found new colonies next season. It seems an enormous enterprise to achieve that, compared with the Saxon wasps (Dolichovespula saxonica) that were in the roof of my bee house in the summer.
Fascinating !
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