Still there in the tree
Queen’s paper throne left empty
Male’s lives forgotten-Clarence Holm
According to the University of Minnesota Extension Service–
“Yellowjacket and paper wasp colonies survive only one year, referred to as an annual colony. Queens are the only members of the colony that survive the winter. Newly produced and mated queens leave their old nests and search for protected sites in which to overwinter, such as under loose tree bark, old rotten stumps, or within buildings, such as under siding. In April or May, each queen becomes active with warmer weather and selects a suitable location and starts to construct her nest. Each nest is built from scratch each year while the previous year’s nests are not reused”
What a stark and haunting haiku. What birds nest is that?
It’s a wasp nest. Every year all the workers and males die off and the queen survives to start a new hive somewhere else. The old one is left to decay.
ah okay! so a smaller creature than I imagined. High employee turnover in waspland!
One way to handle seniority!
Ha! just noticed you had provided a very informative quote answering my first question and more. Shows I only read the haiku first time round! 🙂
Had I known that they wouldn’t come back, I would have left that huge one on the side of my house to fall off. I waited for it to get cold then climbed up there and pushed it off. It got really big, really fast!
Here’s a look at it
https://thoughtsandentanglements.wordpress.com/?s=Wasp+nest&submit=Search
That one would not have been reused. Isn’t amazing that one queen creates that in one year.
It felt like a 8 week period, it was amazing how fast it grew.
If it looked like a cream upside down mushroom they do reuse them and you need to knock down. the grey one that look like paper just dissolve over time.
Nice haiku. Interesting facts.