Stitch it, weave it and set up your home!

We build ourselves many different types of houses, but Nature provides a great variety of housing for Her creatures, too! Let’s look at some of the smaller beings…

Here’s a Weaver Ants’ nest; the ants “weave” together the leaves with a paste that they generate, and make a water-proof home. Pic: Deepa Mohan

Here are two Paper Wasps, beginning the construction of their nest (yes, it is a kind of papery material, hence their name. Pic: Deepa Mohan

When they finish, the wasps’ nest looks like this… such a beautiful globe, with its crescent-shaped patterns. However, do not approach too
close, for fear of being stung! Pic: Deepa Mohan

Several birds do much more than stack twigs together; one of the most famous “architects” is the Baya Weaver, Here is a male Baya Weaver (it’s the males who build the nest…the females inspect them, and if they are not good enough, they don’t accept!) weaving the nest
expertly. Pic: Deepa Mohan

Another very common bird is the Tailorbird. When you see the nest of a Tailorbird, it’s obvious why it’s called that. Can you see the neat
“stitching” of the leaf and the nest material, in this photograph? Pic: Deepa Mohan

Here are two Grey Tits (I often see them in the Bannerghatta zoo area)… these two are actually checking out an old “junction box” left by humans, to see if it is fit to nest in! So what we leave behind is
sometimes useful to birds, too. Pic: Deepa Mohan

Even the most “fearsome” of creatures need the protection of a nest, sometimes. Here is the nest of an Indian Tarantula…. females which
have just-hatched eggs spin this “silk screen” in front of their holes, to prevent predators such as wasps and ants from coming in! Pic: Deepa Mohan

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It’s a continuous source of amazement to see Nature’s "housing solutions"! ⊕