Macro Moments: Week 28

This Macro isn’t quite so close up, I don’t have the nerve for it!

It’s a Mud Wasp or Potter Wasp building its nest.

mud-wasp

Author: macmsue

I’m a sister, wife, mother, grandmother, auntie and friend. I prefer to be outside and am interested in photography, nature and different cultures. I believe everything on this earth has a right to be here but some things and some people would be happiest if their space was far away from mine. (Flies and biting bugs take note!) I don’t like housework and think dust is Nature’s way of saying, “This is my space, I was here first.”

9 thoughts on “Macro Moments: Week 28”

  1. Well done. Smashing capture. We have potter wasps here in Johannesburg but I’ve never seen one so striking.
    Although the same shape, ours are more brownish & black .
    I never worry too much about them. I love to watch them sit outside their nest and fan the eggs with their wings when it gets too hot!

    1. I was lucky enough to spot some today collecting mud. I don’t think these will be fanning any eggs and I’ve told my husband he doesn’t need to be concerned about them because once the nest is finished they just leave it. We’re both hoping I’m right. 🙂

      1. Correct. And I made a mistake as well. The species I have seen fanning its nest under the eaves of our house is the indigenous Paper Wasp … this one.
        http://edrr.co.za/edrr/incorrect/insect/papper-wasp

        I am up in Johannesburg and have not encountered the The invasive European Paper wasp mentioned in Cape Town in this article.
        I hope it remains this way as well.

        http://www.capetowninvasives.org.za/news/2014/11/city-puts-plans-place-control-invasive-wasps

      2. We’ve had the European Wasps here but fortunately something seems to have edged them out. I can tell you from experience that the Paper Wasps we get give a very painful sting. They also seem to be very sneaky about where they build their nests like under a leaf right beside a tap!

      3. Yes, sneaky indeed.
        I am fortunate to never to have been stung by wasp, bee or scorpion while tramping around the garden.Nor even by ants.
        Although I have once been bitten by a spider. We think the culprit was a long-legged sac spider, one of the few of any medical significance out here.
        I was on my hands and knees photographing a butterfly, if I recall? I was wearing shorts, and it must have crawled inside, leaving three, almost identical bites, like pellet wounds, on my backside!

So, what do you think?