Sad story of a wasp's nest

[valdf]

Hi

We were very excited to discover this nest in our garden. It's about the size and shape of an elongated football and I hope I've identified the wasps correctly as Dolichovespula media. Photos aren’t great as the nest was well hidden by leaves - and for obvious reasons we didn’t want to get too close!



We were looking forward to the larvae hatching, but discovered one morning that the nest had been completely wrecked . There was just one solitary wasp wandering around looking lost. Would that be the Queen?



Any thoughts on what the culprit was? We wondered about a magpie? And what will happen to the remains of the nest now? Any chance it might be repaired and reused next year?

Thanks for any ideas.

Val

[matt_xyz]

that's strange, I can't imagine what could have done this. I had a similar Median Wasp nest in my garden 2 years ago but they didn't return to the same site the following year, so that would seem unlikely. That does look like the queen in your photo. I'll be interested to see if anyone has any theories as to what could have happened. I assume you've completely ruled out a human cause (stray football, kids etc?)

Matt

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by valdf

Hi

We were very excited to discover this nest in our garden. It's about the size and shape of an elongated football and I hope I've identified the wasps correctly as Dolichovespula media. Photos aren’t great as the nest was well hidden by leaves - and for obvious reasons we didn’t want to get too close!
We were looking forward to the larvae hatching, but discovered one morning that the nest had been completely wrecked . There was just one solitary wasp wandering around looking lost. Would that be the Queen? Any thoughts on what the culprit was? We wondered about a magpie? And what will happen to the remains of the nest now? Any chance it might be repaired and reused next year?

How far above ground was the nest ? - if within a metre or so then:

Eurasian badger (Meles meles): Photo File - A wasp nest dug out by a badger

CM

[valdf]

Matt - definitely not a stray ball or stray child!

CM - the nest is slightly more than a metre above ground, but the garden is badger-proof (or at least we would see evidence of burrowing under the fence if we'd had such visitors).

We do have 2 dogs, but they're very chilled out and tend to just lie around in that part of the garden. Never showed any interest in the nest and I'd be amazed if one of them suddenly decided to attack it. The ground below is covered in bark mulch and showed no sign of being disturbed. Also, there's nothing for an animal to climb up or onto to reach the nest, which is why we thought it must be a bird.

Val

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by valdf

Also, there's nothing for an animal to climb up or onto to reach the nest, which is why we thought it must be a bird.

In that case Green Woodpecker or Jay are possiblities, though I've only heard of these as wasp nest raiders from second hand sources. A quick internet search throws up little in the way of confirmation - though there is this with amention of both birds in relation to the south of France and Hornets: https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/bee...ent.cfm?id=276

CM

[valdf]

In that case Green Woodpecker or Jay are possiblities.

Thanks CM. We do have green woodpeckers; haven't seen a jay in the garden, but plenty of magpies.

Val

[Klaas Reißmann]

Hi everybody,

if that first posting of 10th August is close to the time the nest got wrecked than this is the normal way of life for a wasp nest. The Nests of Dolichovespula media (yes, the ID is right) in Germany end in July. In Britain, depending on how far north it is, it might be later, but first third of August seems to be pretty ok. Because the nest is made of papier mâché it is rotten very fast. I had one just a few years ago (2008 I think). In the end of July it began to wreck down slowly, in the beginning of August it was nearly allready wrecked. That's the normal way for a nest of Dolichovespula-species. So don't worry. The new queen in the one picture tells you, that everything is ok and the next years generations is in the wings.

Regards
Klaas