I have a wasp trying to nest in a chair on my deck. I tried to dissuade her by spraying neem on the chair when she was gone. It didn’t work.
She was fascinating to watch and I sacrificed my chair to her yesterday. She worked for 2 hours building her egg laying chamber.
My beautiful black wasp. This wasp is long- maybe an inch. She’s all black, with a very slender waist.
She carries a thin piece of grass about 1-2” long into a small hole on the bottom of my chair. Imagine holding something in your mouth that is twice as big as you are. Then fly to a hole about 1/4” diameter, holding the piece. Now imagine flying to turn the grass around and back into the hole, pulling the grass into the hole.
She does this while I’m sitting 2’ away. She totally ignores me, except when I move around. She flies in a different direction to keep a small distance.