One day I decided to work from the deck that is right outside my bedroom. While I was sitting there, I noticed that a fraternal potter wasp was coming and going. It wasn’t bothering me at all, but its constant flight piqued my curiosity. I investigated by looking under the railing that it kept landing under. Sure enough, I came across the nest that it was building. Like other potter wasps, this fraternal potter wasp was building up a nest using mud.

The nests that are built by potter wasps is developed slowly by the female wasps. They typically regurgitate water and mix it with soil (although some species use chewed plant material instead). They will take a ball of this and fly it to their nest site. They then add this to the nest that they are constructing. Once the nest is complete, they will collect beetle larvae, spiders, or caterpillars. They paralyze them and place them into the cell of the nest. This will serve as the food for a single wasp larva. When the larva hatches from the egg, it will feed on the prey for a few weeks before pupating. This lifecycle can take from a few weeks to a full year.