Mason Bees build earthen cells of sand, earth, etc., glued together. Another group of these cut pieces from leaves with which to form their cells.
The Bumble Bees; Western farm boys have invented a method or robbing bumble bees' nests. They take a gallon or two-gallon jug partly filled with water and place it near the nest. They then beat the nest and retire to a distance. The bees swarm out of the nest in their attempt to find the guilty disturber. The jug attracts their attention; they fly to it and the beating of their wings over the mouth of the jug causes a roar which attracts the bees and causes them to fly at the mouth and drop into it. The noise of those inside increases the attraction and finally all the bees are inside. After all the bees are thus disposed of the robbing of the nest is then a safe matter.
Wasps.
The wasps' bodies are less hairy than the bees'. Some of the wasps live solitary lives and other groups colonize. The former build their nests in a burrow or attach them to trees. These nests are supplied by the mother wasp with animal food. The social wasp includes the paper-making varieties and the hornets. The habits of both are similar. The nest is never used more than one season. In India it is said that there is a variety that builds a nest reaching a length of several feet. The hornets suspend large, round nests often a foot in diameter from tree branches.
The Mason Wasps build their nests of mud under outhouses, roofs, on rocks and trees. The sting of these insects, especially that of the hornet, is severe, but they do not sting unless disturbed; then they display great anger and will follow the disturber for a long distance. Although they do considerable damage to fruit they are also helpful as destroyers of insect life.
They capture and store in their cells a great variety of insects, spiders, flies and plant-lice. Certain members of this group of insects burrow into the earth and conceal their nests by inserting a stone over which they scrape earth. When the prey is taken the insect is carried into the burrow and the entrance to it is again closed. Dr. S. W. Williston, writing of this insect, states that the wasp has been observed to "use a stone as a tamping-iron to pack the earth into the mouth of the burrow." He feared, he says, to publish this observation because he thought he would not be believed. It is also said by observers of these wasps that each insect seems to have distinct individuality, for instance, some are careless, some are industrious, some scrupulously painstaking. One entomologist tells of a method used by a wasp in capturing a certain spider: the wasp would entangle itself in the spider's web and the latter would dart out from her hiding place; the wasp would then easily disengage herself from the web and follow the spider to its hiding place. The Cicada often becomes prey of the wasp and its song suddenly ceases as it is quickly stung into insensibility. If in a struggle the two fall to the ground, the wasp drags the Cicada up a tree until she reaches a height from which she can fly downward to her storehouse. The colony wasps are the paper-making insects, their nests being made from woodpulp and woodfiber secured from old fences and unpainted woodwork which they mix with saliva and form into a pulp with which they build their nests.
