Spent almost the whole day in the garden today and learnt something new. Two hornets or potter wasps were busy nest building and regularly visiting the bird bath. I thought it could be today's capture.
As I tried to get a decent shot, I discovered that they were filling their mouths with water and taking it down to a patch of top soil I'd spread. They'd squirt it on the soil to make each little ball of mud that they use to make their nests. I'd only every seen them using wet soil before. I'd never realized they could actually carry water and wet the soil for themselves.
Their my friends because they build small mud cylinders which they mould together in groups. The one pictured has about 12 cells. Each cell is filled with about 10 to 12 paralyzed caterpillars or spiders gathered from the garden. An egg is deposited in each cell. The larvae feast on the food stored for them and pupate in the cell before emerging as fully developed hornets.
@debsulzberger Their worst feature is that the love to build in the house!!! Otherwise they are solitary and seem to be unconcerned by humans and I've never seen they even try to attach. They don't guard their nests...must trust the strength of their building techniques.
