I have a bulbous thing on the ceiling in the garage with an opening. It is about 5 cm in diameter, very fragile and inside you can see combs, like in a beehive. What insect made this? Diameter 4.5 to 5 cm. Color appears creamy white to beige.
There is an opening at the bottom of about 1/2 cm. He hangs from the ceiling. The sphere seems to be made of very thin paper-like material and it seems to be a double layer. The bulb contains combs that have about the same shape as in a bee nest, only smaller. I will send a photo.
What kind of insect is this? I don’t think it is a bee or wasp, the bulb and/or the opening in the bulb is too small for that.
I look forward to your answer.
Thank you in advance for spending your time on this.
Answer
Dear Jan,
At first sight this seems to me to be the beginning of a wepennest. The young queen that is fertilized in the autumn will overwinter in a sheltered place (eg attic, garage) and will start a nest herself in the spring. The balloon-shaped shell, as well as the combs, are made of gnawed wood and other fibers that are chewed by the queen herself and mixed with saliva or water to form a gray or brownish-yellow papery material. Typical for the nest of wasps are the horizontally placed combs; with bees they are always vertical. The wasp nest is originally quite small; the queen lays eggs in the hexagonal cells, and the first larvae are also fed by her. After pupation, the workers emerge from this; they will now take care of feeding the other larvae and the queen, and also the further development of the nest. From then on, the queen only lays eggs. The workers systematically expand the nest to a diameter of 20 to 35 centimetres, the thickness of the walls is then 2 to 3 centimetres. In that nest there are about 8 combs (horizontal). I suspect that something went wrong at the beginning of the cycle; probably the queen has died, and the small colony has completely disappeared and the nest has not expanded further.
Kind regards,
Hans
Answered by
Hans Casteels
identification of pest insects in agriculture and horticulture, stock goods and homes
Burg. van Gansberghelaan 96 box 1 9820 Merelbeke
http://www.ilvo.vlaanderen.be
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