The Ladies of the Hive by Chipka
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Description
Truck yards in Chicago are not the most interesting places around. All too often, they’re dirty, boring, dirty, vaguely dangerous, dirty, and just out of the way enough to make one imagine that axe murderers and serial killers lurk just beyond view. At least the porta-potty is clean.
Truck yards in Chicago may lack their own graces, but there are those who call such places home. And they—if they aren’t human—are often charming, though at times, they can be aloof.
On a particularly long and boring day last summer, I wandered around with my camera. The day’s work was done and I’d been promised a ride home. The only problem with rides home is that you often have to wait an intolerable amount of time, just hanging around. This is when cameras come in handy.
My father owns a fleet of trucks that all resemble lucky escapees from the junk heap. He specializes in moving dental equipment, and so the trucks in his ramshackle fleet are all relatively large. He also possesses a rather large trailer from his days of household moving. That thing is big enough to contain an entire household full of furniture, and other possessions, including a baby grand piano. He doesn’t do household moves very often and so the trailer sits. And rusts. And slowly, slowly decays. He uses it for storage, but I doubt that what he’s storing in there will satisfy anyone but the most intense of packrats. What I like about this trailer, however, is not the trailer itself, but the ladies who live there.
Multiple yellow-jacket hives make use of the trailer, and the corners are encrusted with nests. Some old and abandoned, some new and pulsing with life. There are colony failures as well…tiny little nests, no larger than strawberries, and successful (though abandoned) nests, the size of human heads. As I wandered, I discovered these paper remnants of yellow jacket dwellings, and to my gleeful surprise, I spotted a live nest. Not a very big one, not a very mature one (I don’t think that there were any male members yet) but a thriving one.
As I approached it, two guards immediately sensed my movement and positioned themselves on opposite sides of the hive. I’ve seen this kind of behavior before, and it didn’t bother me or make me change my tactic. I simply approached, camera in hand, and sensing that it was me—and not something interesting or threatening—the guards lost interest. One of them started cleaning her antennae. The other ambled off and found other things to occupy her attention. And I approached the hive. I took multiple shots, but not all of them came out. Yellow jackets like to build their hives just out of camera range, and I found that I had to climb, contort, and balance, just to get the one shot that was worth keeping. I’d managed to get right up on the hive and receive technical assistance from the ONE yellow jacket I was hoping would stay in frame. She had other plans and decided that my arm was a nice place to wander around. She bit me a couple of times, then started collecting salt. It was a hot day, after all, and the minuscule amount of salt on my hand, from sweat, was enough to satisfy her. And in case you’re curious, yellow jacket tongues are feathery (and brown) and feel really strange.
I took this picture, and left a Kleenex soaked in Snapple Peach tea for them as payment. I think they were satisfied. If you look closely, you can also spot a yellow jacket larva, poking it's head out of the paper cell it was tucked into.
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As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you're all having a great weekend.
Comments (24)
Rainastorm
Woah...super cool shot...really! Our bees have gone into their homes and snoozing for the winter here...which is OK by me...worried all summer my son would get stung. Wouldn't have been good.
mariogiannecchini
Signore dal carattere pungente , meglio non farle inquietare ! Ottimo scatto ! Lord prickly character, better not disturb her! Excellent shot!
-seek-
i like it.. very interesting
NefariousDrO
Very cool photo, I like the effect of the super-rich colors. You're brave getting that close to them, they're a very aggressive species, and I've been stung more than once simply because I'd gotten too close to a nest. cool shot, and very interesting story.
blondeblurr
What a fascinating yarn, you are spinning on the yellow-jackets (?), never heard that expression before... but you know, you are quite right about their uniforms, except I believe the yellow/black masks they are sporting, with those big black eyes, are downright scary and a reminder of Darth Vader. Glad, that you received some technical assistance, good rapport and knowledge is mandatory, if you don't want to feel the sting. Those brainy-looking cells came out really well and seem to have a silver sheen to it, amazing little architects - that tissue will come in really handy, as more building material. A very brave close-up or a very good camera... BB
RodS
Outstanding photo, and a great narration to go along with it! You are a braver man than me - where yellowjackets are concerned, I usually go the other way. I'm not squeamish, just cautious :-D
potrimpo
And those "lovely" ladies always seems to be very fond of me.
bmac62
Let's hope your father doesn't take anymore moving jobs...would hate to be given a couple of hours to prepare this trailer. I've never seen a yellow jacket's hive this close before...fascinating. It is an amazing structure...talk about symmetry. Thanks for posting this Chip. This is something I'd not get to see without your balancing and contortions on our behalf:)
Hubba1
Very well discribed :) Very cool! I just love reading and seeing your post :)
auntietk
Wow. I am totally impressed! Excellent photography, and a great story!
blinkings
Very cool mate. Better you than me!!!!!! Great photo though, as I don't think I have ever had such a good look at them before.
Meisiekind
Hmmmm - i am a little allergic to these critters, so I appreciate this image more than the average person as I will probably never get that close myself! Wonderful work and narrative Chip! :)
helanker
What a fantastic shot and what you did to get it, amazes me too. I loved to read your thought about these little Whasp home. Well done, Chip.
durleybeachbum
Such an engrossing narrative, Chip. I find that if you are confident with wsps they don't sting, and I've also discovered that while we eat outside in the summer a tiny bit of meat at the end of the table keeps them off the plates.
romanceworks
Fascinating creatures and shot and your narrative makes them somehow approachable, though you'd never catch me crawling and contorting to get up close and personal. Seems your camera's eye is as curious as your mind and you made good use of waiting for your ride. Feathery and brown tongues, who knew?? We get them up here in the mountains later in the summer and they won't take no for an answer, buzzing, buzzing, buzzing around anything edible. I like durleybeachbum's tip about diverting their attention with a well-placed piece of meat. I imagine you would have them eating it out of your hand. CC
ladyraven23452
cool shot love it,
MrsRatbag
What a fantastic shot, and your narrative is riveting as always!
kgb224
Outstanding capture my friend.
kwami
amazing shot
mermaid
amazin shot indeed, and I am not sure, I would go this close to a nest, as they are big... When I was in Tuscany there was a biog nest of them in an old dead tree and they were flying around collecting wood from other old dead trees and I even got a fascinating show twice of two of them westling with each other for a longer time but neither killed the other one. While westling they were blind to everything moving around them and even fell from a wall down to the earth without openeing the grip on each other...
danapommet
Super macro Chip and super detail. ZOOM is a must. Nice narrative. Dana
mbz2662
Very cool shot. I was enthralled with the narrative. Is a bite different than a sting? Does it hurt? I know a sting hurts! Wasps are a little bit scary to me, so I haven't ventured too close for photos (I did get a couple of good photos once when one was in my kitchen window). I don't know if I could hold still long enough for a wasp to crawl on my arm.. lol.
flora-crassella
wonderful and interesting picture! I see always many of this kind of wasp (Polistes dominula). But I did not see a nest ever!
elfin14doaks
very cool shot. I have never seen a nest so close up before.