Usually people are not such big fans of wasps, especially given their reputation. At first sight these creatures doesn’t look too friendly, but rather dangerous. Yet, we need to admit they’re tireless workers and apparently they posses an artistic side too.
Mattia Menchetti, a biology student at the University of Florence, Italy conducted a quite impressive experiment. He gave some colored paper to a colony of European paper wasps and the results were so colorful.
Paper wasps use fibers of wood and plants to built their water-proof nests. So, Mattia thought the insects would reveal their artistic side if given colored paper. First he gave them some yellow paper, then he introduced them blue, green and pink sheets of paper. The little workers happily accepted them all and the results were some breathtaking rainbow nests.
The European paper wasps are the most common wasps. They’re spread all over North America. They also live in Europe, parts of Asia, Australia or South Africa.
They usually build a single nest to serve as home for multiple generation. Therefore it must be a long standing nest. According to wildlife experts a protein found in the saliva of the wasps is the secret of their incredible durable nests.
h/t: mattiamenchetti| mymodernmet
