I eventally shooed it out of an open window - unfortunately causing it to drop it's prey on the way. I had seen the wasp's nest a few days ago on my front door but hadn't had the time to clean it up yet.
What are those green and brown things inside the nest ? Let's find out.
According to Otterman's blog, potter wasps seal their eggs into their mud nests together with paralyzed live caterpillars as food for their babies Extremely gross...
Otterman's blog has a picture of a sealed nest, but this one was still open. Not sure what is the time-line for the hatching process is, but there seemed to be some already-hatched larvae out sucking on a still-twitching caterpillar (told you it was gross)
as well as something that looks like an egg case - the clear whorled tube with something green in the middle (or is that a pupa ?)
Click on the magnifying glass in picasa to get a better look. There also seems to be something on the underside of the mud wall of the nest in the two pictures above.
After reading Siva's blog, I realize that the potter wasp rarely stings and actually helps to control caterpillars. Oh well. If it had been on an outside wall, I would probably have left it alone even before I found out it was beneficialbut the front door is a very inconvenient place for a wasp's nest.
Epilog: The wasp came back after I had removed the nest, with another caterpillar but left after she realized the nest was gone.
