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.
