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. Words and mental images, being mere symbolic representations, cannot take you to the zenith of understanding. What is limited can only go to a limited degree/extent.
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. Eastern Yellow Jackets:
They prey on insects and spiders. Their underground, globular paper nests, usually built in abandoned rodent burrows (it is said)… may contain as many as 5,000 workers and one queen. The ones which I photographed were expanding their underground breeding chambers; you can see two of them each diligently carrying a huge clump of moist dirt! [Double left click on the photo to get a closer look; hit left return arrow to return.] I was precariously close — they deliver a vicious sting — but I used to keep bees… and all went well! One could see that they were definitely aware of my presence; some were hovering next to my head, keeping a close eye on me. I moved slowly and they allowed me to get rather close to their “woman cave.”
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Raising a family isn’t easy (1)… Eastern Yellow Jackets … by Thomas Peace 2013
Raising a family isn’t easy (2)… Eastern Yellow Jackets … by Thomas Peace 2013
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 
great photos of the wasps tom, and thanks for information about them … we don’t have those here … good they let you near 🙂
Thanks, Christine! They are — much like Praying Mantises — very alien-like in appearance! I often see various types of wasps hovering around thick vegetation — methodically searching in very orderly patterns — looking for spider webs and spiders, upon which they feed. 😉
We have Mud Wasps and Paper Wasps … the first are no problem but once I had to remove a Polistes nest because one of my yoga students was stung … we do like wasps but not the sting!