Materials Girl

Ahh, Nature, the pinnacle of design, both in form and function. These beautiful creations are none other than wasps nests. (I don’t let them get this big near my house either…. eeee!) The stratified layers of color which look so intentionally crafted are a outcome of daily variation in the wasps diet. A nest building worker wasp will use pretty much any cellulose based product for construction materials, from wood to cardboard. The nest itself is completely comprised of cellulose and wasp spit, creating paper pulp through mastication and partial digestion. After forming the sticky paper pulp the wasp uses its mandibles and legs to shape a giant house-pinata!  Ahh, the wonders of the natural world, biology rocks me. 

This post inspired by Janine Benyus, and her fantastic book Biomimicry.