Wasps make their nests by chewing wood fibers and mixing them with their saliva to create a paper-like pulp. The process begins when a fertilized queen emerges from hibernation in spring and selects a suitable, usually dry and sheltered location such as a tree branch, attic, or wall

. The queen scrapes wood fibers from sources like dead trees, fences, or even cardboard, then chews these fibers and mixes them with saliva to form a pliable, papery material. She uses this to build a stalk called a petiole, which anchors the nest to the chosen surface

. From the petiole, the queen constructs a series of hexagonal cells arranged in a honeycomb pattern. She lays a single egg in each cell, which will hatch into larvae. The queen initially tends to the larvae until they mature into worker wasps, which then take over nest expansion and maintenance

. As the colony grows, more combs are added, suspended from each other by stalks and enclosed by curved walls, forming a spherical or dome-shaped nest. The hexagonal cell structure is highly efficient, with wasps carefully calibrating the angles to optimize material use

. In summary, wasps build nests by:

• Collecting wood fibers from the environment
• Chewing and mixing fibers with saliva to make a paper pulp
• Constructing a stalk (petiole) to attach the nest
• Building hexagonal cells for eggs and larvae
• Expanding the nest as the colony grows, with workers continuing construction