To make these nests, the wasps find weathered wood, sourced from old fences or porches, and chew this wood fiber into a paste-like pulp mixed with their saliva. Then, the insects form this pulp into hexagon-shaped paper cells. At first, the workers make only as many cells as they need to hold their eggs.

How long does it take for a wasp to build a nest?

How Long Does It Take to Build a Wasp Nest? Nests are generally always under construction throughout the spring and summer as the colony continues to grow, so technically, a fully realized nest takes about 4-6 months to complete.

How does a wasp nest start?

The nest starts in the spring with the queen building a petiole (a single stalk from which the nest hangs) and a single hexagonal shaped cell at the end of the petiole, then approx six more cells are formed around the centre one. The queen constructs each cell then lays an egg in it.