How much training does an engineer need? How about an Architect? There are many cowboy builders out there with little or no training, and don’t they mess up.
There is an inch long, a little engineer that would fit on your thumb has no degree, has never been to school. However, the building work they produce, the relative strength of their structures and the intricacy of the design is something that engineers worldwide admire.
Paper wasps have been described as master engineers.
The paper wasps make their building materials by gathering plant fibres and chewing them up.
When mixed with their sticky, high protein saliva, they produce a water-resistant pulp from which they design a grey or brown paper nest. The properties in the saliva, once dried, enable the paper nest to generate and absorb heat for perfect climate control. They also secrete an ant repellent to keep away invaders and protect their babies.
From a construction point of view, these nests are a design marvel. The cells are hexagonal; this is one of the most economical shapes that are ultra-lightweight, flexible, recyclable, and very strong.
Most paper wasps produce an umbrella-shaped open comb design for rearing their young. The nest will likely hang in a tree secured with a ‘Petiole’, a stalk that firmly anchors the nest. Sometimes they are found under the eaves of houses, ends of pipes and even on clotheslines.
Unlike our building methods, careful tiny builders do not harm the environment. The Wasps produce no toxic waste to pollute the air, water or land, and disturb the neighbours with noisy construction first thing in the morning. Therefore, they do not need building inspectors to ensure quality construction methods.
In our schools and universities, researchers, designers, chemists, architects and the like study the construction of this tiny untrained insect to try to design our building materials that are lightweight, strong, flexible and biodegradable.
Kevin Millar BSc (Hons), MCIOB, a building surveyor with Hawthorn Estates Ltd, commented ‘This insect, with a brain the size of two grains of sand. Yet, with no education, degree, or qualification, it knows instinctively how to build in a way from which we ‘educated’ people desire to learn. How is that for irony?’
Written by Kendall Dootson (Retired Director)
