What's growing in my shed?

Mollyb60

Anyone have any clue what this nest/chrysallis is? Found it hanging from our shed roof yesterday. Indoors, about 50mm high.
It's making my skin crawl even thinking about it.

punisher5112

Hive....

Mickeroo

Wasp nest I would think.

Butterbeans

Hard to gauge size from the pic but if very small, it'll be a solitary wasp. Have the remnants of 2 in my own shed, never did any harm

Masala

Might be best to get rid of it and seal / tape up the doors to the shed for a few days to keep the wasps getting in to populate it.

Wouldn't like to be accessing that shed with a hive over my head....

Alun

Wasp nest. They start off very small, just the queen, who hibernates during the winter while all the other wasps die off. She lays a few eggs that turn to worker wasps which continue the building process making room for the queen to start the real work of laying eggs and increasing the size of the colony.

It looks very small now, so now is the time to strike before it gets any bigger. I'd say, knock it off with a broom handle and give it a good stamp.

Effects

It looks like wasps, and I personally wouldn't want it in my shed.
I love wasps, and they do great work in the garden, but I would not want my shed to be off limits to use.

Alun

Masala wrote: »

Might be best to get rid of it and seal / tape up the doors to the shed for a few days to keep the wasps getting in to populate it.

That's not the way the hive is populated. The queen lays eggs in the nest.

https://www.nbcenvironment.co.uk/residential/wasp-lifecycle/

amadangomor

Alun wrote: »

Wasp nest. They start off very small, just the queen, who hibernates during the winter while all the other wasps die off. She lays a few eggs that turn to worker wasps which continue the building process making room for the queen to start the real work of laying eggs and increasing the size of the colony.

It looks very small now, so now is the time to strike before it gets any bigger. I'd say, knock it off with a broom handle and give it a good stamp.

Wow, this is a disgraceful comment.

dazed+confused

Or take it off cleanly with a paint scraper and drop into a paper bag, then relocate it somewhere wooded and dry.

Which option you choose depends where you appear on the "likely to become a serial killer" spectrum of course.

Harry Palmr

Get it out now or have a stingy summer. It happened to me, I ended up committing mass murder with a wasp killer spray.

Alun

amadangomor wrote: »

Wow, this is a disgraceful comment.

Why?

Masala

Alun wrote: »

That's not the way the hive is populated. The queen lays eggs in the nest.

https://www.nbcenvironment.co.uk/residential/wasp-lifecycle/

wow... didnt know that!!!

When the above happened in my shed..... I saw 'the wasp' coming and going through the gaps in my shed door. So I taped them up.

Saw 'her' flying up and down the door trying to get in for a few hours. i presume she abandoned it and moved on.

Mollyb60

Guys, thanks a million for the help. We did see one or 2 wasps there but thought it was too small to be a wasp nest.

Apparently I'm very close to being a serial killer judging by some of the comments because I will not be relocating the poor unfortunate wasps.

Alun

Masala wrote: »

wow... didnt know that!!!

When the above happened in my shed..... I saw 'the wasp' coming and going through the gaps in my shed door. So I taped them up.

Saw 'her' flying up and down the door trying to get in for a few hours. i presume she abandoned it and moved on.

I understand not every single nest started by a queen is successful for some reason or another, not sure why. Often they never get bigger than the size of a large acorn.

If you ever find an old abandoned full size wasp nest though, they're amazing things. You can slice them open and see how they're built, and they weigh practically nothing.

Bumble bees are the same, every single bumble bee, apart from the queen, who has already mated before hibernating, dies off every year.

Honey bee colonies are different and can overwinter if they have somewhere to do so.