It's May, which means the lawn grows about 3" a day, and we are way behind. So this morning I was out there raking up lawn trimmings and I came upon a whole bunch of dead daylily stems I'd taken out a couple weeks ago.
As I gathered them up, I noticed a spiral form that looked sort of like a snail shell. I separated out the strand, looked closer, and saw that it was the outside of a wasp nest, sort of like a little umbrella.
On the other side were just a few little wasp "cubicles," each one with an egg inside. Cool!
I brought it inside and, in the first photo, shot it using the iPhone 8+. I like the curve of the daylily stem and I like the color of the light.
The second photo was shot with a full-frame Canon DSLR and a 100mm macro lens. I don't like the color very much, but didn't want to re-do it just for this blog. It's easier to see the individual eggs in this image.
As I enlarged each picture in the computer, it became obvious that although the iPhone does a good job, the eggs and their cubicles all had a sort of mushy look up close, whereas the DSLR image remained sharp as I enlarged it.
These are wasps. We already have plenty. Our yard doesn't need five or so more. What to do with them now? Well, I put the entire stem and the nest inside a clear jar. Some of the stem stuck out the top. So I put aluminum foil over the jar opening and wrapped it around the stem. If the eggs hatch, the wasps won't be able to chew through the aluminum foil (as they would paper). I don't believe the eggs will hatch, but if they do, they won't get out and buzz around my studio.
If anything interesting happens, I'll let you know . . . but don't hold your breath.
By the way, this is my personal blog, to see what I'm doing on a professional level, check out my pro blog at https://carolleighart.blogspot.com.
