What some consider to be a nuisance can also be seen as a work of art.
Phyllis Wakelyn has a rather large and beautiful wasp nest inside her Brinkworthy Estates carport. She discovered the nest after noticing little holes in a blanket covering a piece of furniture in her garage. When she looked closer, the holes were being used by wasps that had built an intricate nest inside the hutch.
“It was about four months ago when I first saw the little holes appearing. They were getting settled in for the winter, I guess. When they first began they were babies, with no colour. Slowly but surely as I saw them come and go I realized they were developing stripes,” she said.
“In the winter I checked it out to see what was happening there. A few of them would fly out, but not many. There’d be two or three. They didn’t bother me, they were just checking to see who was bothering their nest.”
The nest does not have any living wasps in it at present, and Wakelyn is looking for a way to remove it from the drawer it is attached to.
“So many of the neighbours have been saying to people to come and see it,” she said.
She would like to keep it but not inside the piece of furniture.
“[It would be great] if we are able to get it taken off there without ruining it, but I don’t know who to go to for that . . . It’s so gorgeous.”
