Friday, May 19, 2006
The wasps have been consuming a great deal. Over the past few days, they have finished three crickets, a number of mealworms and lots of raw and cooked chicken. I can see that some new workers have hatched; I have stopped counting them already!
A whole new lot of eggs have been laid, and some of the young larvae are now getting very big. Many of the larger larvae are now pupae. I noticed that the wasps reuse the cells over and over. The top cells have already raised 2 groups of workers, and are now housing a third group of larvae! The nest is also expanding slightly at the bottom.
In the past 2 or 3 days, I have been finding escaped wasps in the room. I found a hole at the side of the cage. It is very small, but the wasps can easily escape through it. It is quite an old hole, and I should have fixed it long ago. I don't know why I missed it. Anyway, it is now fixed. Hopefully there will be no more escapes.
A whole new lot of eggs have been laid, and some of the young larvae are now getting very big. Many of the larger larvae are now pupae. I noticed that the wasps reuse the cells over and over. The top cells have already raised 2 groups of workers, and are now housing a third group of larvae! The nest is also expanding slightly at the bottom.
In the past 2 or 3 days, I have been finding escaped wasps in the room. I found a hole at the side of the cage. It is very small, but the wasps can easily escape through it. It is quite an old hole, and I should have fixed it long ago. I don't know why I missed it. Anyway, it is now fixed. Hopefully there will be no more escapes.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Mad!!!
Wasps hate any disturbance to their nests, and blowing or breathing on a nest, in particular, will get you into serious trouble under natural circumstances. Fortunately, what happened last night did not cause any injury to me because of the enclosure.
I was cleaning the cage at night, when the wasps are usually all sleeping. For some reason, my nose has been blocked the past couple of days, so I was probably breathing a little heavier than normal. Worse still, the room in which all animals in my place are kept can get stuffy at night. Thus while reaching into the far corner of the cage, I unknowingly inhaled deeply and then slowly breathed out. Suddenly, the wasps went berserk. Every single wasp except the queen and three workers left the nest, and flew in an agitated manner. Thankfully my quick reflexes enabled me to pull my arm out of the enclosure and close it in a split second. The wasps were not just flying wildly, they were flying towards the front of the cage, aiming at my silhoutte. Some started stinging the wire mesh! What a close shave. I shall have to watch my breathing when working with them.
There are now a total of 17 wasps. More larvae have started to pupate as well. Soon, I guess, I will no longer be able to count the number of wasps so easily!
Friday, May 12, 2006
Snapshot
Here is a snapshot of the nest in its new location. They have adapted fast and are already able to make a beeline for the food and water dishes in their new locations.
The blue and white in the background is a sheet of canvas which I use to shade the nest area from the sunlight.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Relocation to a new home
The colony has been steadily growing, and I thought the enclosure looked a little too cramped. Six or seven can be seen flying around the tank at any time, and their flight is quite limited. Therefore, I took out an old cage, originally intended for arboreal (tree-dwelling) reptiles such as geckos and chameleons; the wire mesh is very fine and ideal for a colony of these. The ventilation is also much better, and there is more space.
I tried pulling the suction hook off the tank, but it was too tight and the movement angered the wasps; I almost got stung. Therefore I used one of my tried-and-tested (but extremely time-consuming and requiring great patience) methods: luring the individual wasps off the nest with honey on a stick and then netting/bagging them. In this case, since it was within a confined space, I lured the wasps onto a cotton bud soaked with honey and then simply slipped a plastic bag over them; the net was unnecessary. It took nearly half an hour. There were 13 wasps excluding the original queen; 14 altogether. At this time, none of the workers are the same size as or bigger than the queen.
I tied the nest to a large branch, as shown in the photo. Taking a good look at the brood within the nest, I was surprised to find that many of the original cells have been reused and the larvae in them are quite big already. The number of new eggs, built in tiny new cells at the side, is surprisingly great. These new cells have been steadily increasing in number. They can be seen in this photo. Ten pupae can be seen at the bottom; ten new wasps can be expected soon!
To my chagrin, the part of the nest from which I tied it to the branch broke off. I could not find any other empty cell to attach it from, so I had to pull out one larva in order to slip the fishing line through! This was unfortunate, but the growth rate of the nest will not be affected much by just one larva. I decided, however, that the tension required to tie the nest to this branch would cause this empty cell to tear too. So I tied it to a hanging ornament I bought some time back. This is a small, light ball-shaped object made of rattan , originally for use as a household decoration. I easily tied the nest to it, and then tied it through the top of the new wire mesh enclosure. I then introduced the wasps back to the nest and left them alone.
All this was done last night. This morning, they seem to have adapted fine. I will try to take photos of the new setup later.
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Steady growth
I have been busy over the past few days, spending time with old friends and returning home quite late. Thus I did not have much time to observe the colony, except to change the paper lining and leaving food for them.
The wasps are active now and able to forage. I put two small dishes in the cage; one contains some water and the other some food, usually a piece of ham or meat, or sometimes a killed cricket (I recently bought crickets to feed my other pets).
For the first time, I can see some noticeable growth in the size of the nest. At least twenty new cells have been constructed. At least ten eggs have hatched into larvae, and some of the older larvae have pupated. And there are a number of new workers too. There were eight yesterday (1st May). However, there are only seven today. I suspect one escaped while I was cleaning the cage; I saw a wasp-like shape flying round my living room this morning but lost track of it.
I will take some more photos of the nest soon.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
New cells + new introduced worker
Over the past few days, I have noticed a slow but steady increase in the number of new cells. Most of these now have eggs in them; a couple already house larvae.
There is now a fourth worker, bringing the colony size to five. However, this worker did not hatch out from this nest. I obtained her after a failed nest relocation. I installed another nest of this species outside my window, but did not give them enough time to adapt to the new surroundings. The queen and two workers thus flew away. The remaining worker deserted the nest and flew into my living room from the window.
Recalling several incidents when foreign workers joined another nest, I caught her and decided to try something. I put her in a container for a couple of hours to make her less flighty, then gently opened the cover and raised the container to this nest. She climbed out without hesitation. The queen and two other workers immediately gathered around and appeared to be "licking" or gently biting her. This is probably a way of enforcing their dominance. However, she was quickly accepted into this colony, and soon started foraging and even repairing cells.
There is now a fourth worker, bringing the colony size to five. However, this worker did not hatch out from this nest. I obtained her after a failed nest relocation. I installed another nest of this species outside my window, but did not give them enough time to adapt to the new surroundings. The queen and two workers thus flew away. The remaining worker deserted the nest and flew into my living room from the window.
Recalling several incidents when foreign workers joined another nest, I caught her and decided to try something. I put her in a container for a couple of hours to make her less flighty, then gently opened the cover and raised the container to this nest. She climbed out without hesitation. The queen and two other workers immediately gathered around and appeared to be "licking" or gently biting her. This is probably a way of enforcing their dominance. However, she was quickly accepted into this colony, and soon started foraging and even repairing cells.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
I gave the wasps another grasshopper. This time, I used the forceps to place the grasshopper directly on the nest surface. The wasps reacted violently; they latched on and stung the grasshopper continuously. Being quite heavy, it dropped off the nest, with one wasp still latched on to it. This wasp continued to bite and sting, even though it was being dragged around the enclosure by the much stronger grasshopper. The wasp bit one of the grasshopper's antennae, plunging her sting repeatedly into the abdomen all the while. Finally, the grasshopper weakened and toppled over. A result of the stinging? The wasp bit off a leg and flew back to the nest. I then picked it up with the forceps and slowly offered it to the other wasps on the nest. This time, the combined efforts of the other wasps enabled them to dismember it without dropping it.
