What is wasp nest made of?

 

      An English naturalist named Roger Harvey was collecting samples of leaves to study the vegetation during his visit to Africa in the mid 20th century. After walking miles for the samples, he sat down on a stone to rest his tired limbs. About 10 feet away from where he was resting he saw a wasp working furiously in the sandy soil. Roger Harvey had some knowledge about insects, so he made no mistake in recognizing the insect for a wasp. (Otherwise most people confuse a wasp with a honey bee, since at first glance the appearance of both the insects is more or less similar). Harvey got interested in the activities of the wasp. As he

looked on, this wasp moved grains of sand with its fore legs and filling up a hole. Just as a pirate works at a feverish pace to bury his looted treasure, so also the wasp was working at an extremely fast pace to seal the hole. After sometime, the hole was sealed up; but the wasps was not satisfied. It pulled and piled up a small amount of sand on the closed hole. It then paced about in all directions on the sand.

 

      Roger Harvey felt sure that oil it was searching for something that it had lost. What it was searching for, Roger did not know but after searching for quite some time, it finally spread its wings and rose into the air. It returned after about five minutes and on observing closely Roger Harvey saw that the wasp had a small bead-sized pebble clasped tightly in its lower jaw! Harvey's curiosity increased manifold. Did the wasp wish to put the pebble on the sealed hole as a paperweight to ensure that the seal does not open? This naturalist trained his magnifying glass on the wasp for better and detailed observation and looked through it keenly to note what the wasp was up to. And then wonders! His curiosity turned to astonishment, when he saw the wasp tapping the sealed hole with the small bead-sized pebble it had in its lower jaw! It would raise its jaw and bring it down with as much force as it could on the sealed up hole. It repeated this process quite a few times. Thus, the small pebble was doing the job of a hammer. Within ten minutes the hole was quite flattened. In this way the hole of the burrow was tightly sealed. Even then the wasp was not fully satisfied and so it pulled some sand grains and heaped them onto the hole. It then tapped these sand grains also with its pebble and then when it had no use of its tool, it threw the pebble away.

 

      All Roger Harvey could do was stare speechlessly. After watching the insignificant wasp using such a good idea anyone would feel astonished, but for a naturalist it was an even more amazing feat. Why? Not because the sight was astounding but because the small wasp had used a tool to get its job done. It had used the small pebble as an instrument or a tool. Though the thing may seem unimportant or negligible, but since the wasp had used it in a special way was it not strange and so what could one make of it? To make use of anything as a tool needs some little intelligence at least, doesn't it? Scientists have always maintained that no other living creature except man has intelligence. It is not possible to use intelligence without logic and thinking. But in this case, the wasp was proving all these theories wrong. By using a pebble like a mini hammer it became obvious that the wasp knew that if the loose grains of sand were tapped into place with a heavy object, the nest would become a safer place for its eggs and would protect them better from its foes. Its enemies would not be able to enter it and consume the eggs. This was the sole reason why Roger Harvey found the behavior of the small wasp so strange. When he recounted his experience in a British magazine other entomologists were also most amazed.

 

      Today, researchers have gathered a lot of information about the wasp. It is now known that not only is the wasp intelligent enough to use tools, but it is also one of the best natural engineers. The proof of its excellent engineering feats can be seen in the illustration on the opposite page. A nest of the wasp known as the paper wasp is seen in the illustration. The nest is quite similar to a beehive in appearance. And like the honeybee the paper wasp has also made perfect hexagonal compartments in its nest without using any geometrical instrument whatsoever.

 

      Though the paper wasp's nest looks similar to the beehive, there is one peculiarity that distinguishes them. While the honeybee uses beeswax as a raw material for the construction of its nest, the paper wasp uses paper which it itself produces!

 

      It is said that a Chinese noble named Tsai Lin who was in service with the Emperor of Han Dynasty during the era of 105 B.C. first discovered the technique of paper-making. According to the well known folklore, when Lin examined the material (paper) used by the wasp just out of curiosity, he found that it was ideal for writing. (In those days, the Chinese used to write on bamboo strips and silk cloth). Lin observed how the wasp makes its nest for quite a few days. After a lot of trials he finally emulated the wasp and was successful in making the world's first manmade paper.

 

      Even today, man makes paper more or less just like the paper wasp does - i.e. first make fine pulp out of solid wood and then turn this pulp into paper. The wasp too, after selecting a place suitable enough to build a nest in the shape of a hive, searches for and locates a piece of old wood from somewhere. It bites off a piece of this wood and chews on it for a long time. Its second bite is of a fresh and fibrous stem which it also chews for quite some time. After the two powders are ready according to its needs, it mixes them with its saliva and grinds them into fine pulp. This pulp is now straightened out by the wasp to make the walls of its nest. As the pulp dries up it takes the form of paper. It is cellulose paper which is exactly like the printing and writing paper we manufacture in our paper mills!

 

      Just like the honeybee, many wasps work jointly to build a multi- compartmentalised nest. Though of course, the honeybee uses its hive as a store house for honey, the wasp uses its nest for the sole purpose of spawning. There are many species of wasps in the world. Not all wasps live in groups and so it is not possible for solitary wasps to build huge nests which are distributed into many sections. Consequently, the nests of such solitary wasps have an absolutely different design and are made of a totally dissimilar material. For e.g. a wasp species known as the potter wasp makes a small earthen pot as its nest. Just as a potter prepares a pulp by adding adequate amount of water to the soil, so also the wasp finds good quality soil, mixes it with its saliva and ruminates it in its mouth.

 

      Thereafter, it chooses a good and safe site and starts making a pot-like nest. It does not even forget to make a fine border on the upper edge of the pot! The eggs are laid in this pot and then the mouth is sealed up with wet mud. This completes the life work of the wasp. After this job is done, the wasp will never even look at the pot let alone going near it! It does not even look at its offspring when they hatch.

 

      Though of course, before bidding farewell to the nest it has to ensure that the larvae, caterpillars and wasp that will finally emerge from the pot have sufficient nutrition. So, before sealing up the pot, the wasp puts some food stock inside. It finds a healthy caterpillar and injects its poisonous sting into it. The dose of the poison is mild, so the caterpillar does not die. It becomes unconscious and does not regain consciousness for days together. Meanwhile it cannot move at all. In short, 'Sting operation'! A wasp injection the wasp just gives it an anesthesia-like injection and renders it unconscious. Not only this, the wasp tears open the caterpillar and lays its eggs in this space! After a few days, the larvae hatch out of the eggs and this caterpillar serves as their tasty, nutritious food!

 

     There is yet another wasp that is known as the stone-worker since it mixes large stones with sand and makes homes just like brick houses. After the construction is done, it leaves a small hollow space like a window in the nest. It uses this path to push the unconscious caterpillar into the nest and then seals it up firmly with sand and stones. Days later, when this window opens once more, new wasps come out of it and there is no sign of the caterpillar!

 

      Is not some intelligence required for all this complicated work? If Nature has endowed only humans with intelligence, then what gives this special instinct to the various wasps? Of course, only Nature is capable of all this and so it has set a computer-program like inspiration in the brains of the wasps!