Paper Wasps

 
I usually like lots of insects in our garden, but not this one!  This is an 'Asian Paper Wasp' nest.  The wasps sting and they also eat caterpillars.  I noticed we didn't have many Monarch Butterfly caterpillars this year.  I went looking for nests and I found this big one on a wall.  After taking the photo, I sprayed it with flyspray.

 

Here's a little Monarch Butterfly caterpillar feeding on a 'swan plant'.  The caterpillars grow to about 5cm long, then they form a chrysalis.  After a couple of weeks the butterflies come out.  When they come out of the chrysalis they are bright and beautiful.

 

 

Here's a Monarch Butterfly feeding on an orange cosmos flower.  We plant lots of flowers for butterflies.  They especially like the orange cosmos plants, they must have good nectar.  Can you see it's tongue poking into the flower?  This one is quite old, it's wings are faded and damaged.

I will look for more wasp nests tomorrow!