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Paper Wasp Nest Cache


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I am out with the familly walking in one of the urban forest areas of our community and my wife looks at me and says "this would be a great place if you could make a cache like a paper wasps nest". Now i get thinking that she's right, but how would one make such a thing. Spray Foam? I think not as everyone who posts about using it as rock material says it doesnt stand up to the elements or Geocachers. So here is my problem, how would one make a wasps nest for a cache? Has any one tried paper mache? Has any one made one and what has thier experience been. :laughing:

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I don't think that coating a real nest will stand up to caching and the elements. In reality these nests are rather fragile. Also I don't think i'd want to tempt the real wasps to use it.

 

Will fiberglass stick to the spray foam or will it just disolve it.

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I've been considering constructing one also. I plan on trying paper mache and then spraying it with matte clear arcylic lacquer to weatherproof it. It would have a vitamin bottle or similar container inside for the actual cache. I'm not sure it would last more than a year but then what's the outdoor life of Gladware? I'd simply have a replacement ready to go.

And don't forget to stick on plastic wasps or bees on the outside while the lacquer is still tacky! :huh:

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You might try calling a local pest exterminator and asking if they have removed any paper wasp nests of late. The problem I see with any type of these nests as caches is someone new taking up residence. Paper wasp nests will degrade over time since they are so thin, so making one out of paper mache might be a way to go, you might wrap the paper around a pencil to get that cell structure just right....good luck - be sure and vary the colors, one cell might have three different colors from light brown to dark brown and gray tones.

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Here's a pic of my cache Wayland 5.0 - Vespula's Castle in its final resting place. "Vespula" is the genus of the hornet and the cache was hidden in the "Castle Hill" conservation area. The container is about 18" high and 12" in diameter.

 

Spray paint doesn't adhere to foam very well. I had to touch it up every six months and eventually archived it.

 

Here's how I constructed it:

 

- Find a large plastic jar like the ones used to hold pretzels or animal crackers at Costco (1-1/2 to 2 gals?)

- Drill a couple of pairs of holes on opposite sides of the jar. Space them 1/2" apart

- Bend 1/2" wire mesh into a cylinder around the jar and taper the ends, leaving lid exposed

- Loop 3" wire through the holes and twist around mesh to secure

- Cover mesh with expansion foam

- Let foam cure. Trim and shape with serrated knife

- Spray paint

- Drill two holes in lid, loop a zip tie through holes. Seal holes with JB Weld epoxy.

- Use parachute cord or camping cord to hoist the cache over a tree branch. Tie it off.

 

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Edited by CacheNCarryMA
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This is coming from someone who is allergic and whoes Gramdmother died from a(just one) wasp sting. I don't think it's a good idea. Ok, well it is a good idea, love the evilness of it. But it might not be a good idea....If there was just one wasp flying around trying to see if that is their home and the cacher was allergic and for whatever didn't have an epipen with them, it does just take one.

 

This is a lot different than hiding in a log and getting bitten by a snake. If you hit the log with a stick the snake leaves. If you hit a wasp nest with a stick they WILL atteck. What if they make a nest and you hadn't checked it in a while. What if the cacher didn't even KNOW they were allergic and they get stung, have a horrible reaction and don't get help in time?

 

Love the idea just from an evilness viewpoint....hate the idea because of the worry it might cause.

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Sure paper wasp nests are fragile. But surely they were built to withstand some water! Otherwise .... well.... we've still got wasps, don't we?

 

Why not use the actual paper wasp nest, and suspend a camouglaged 'micro' beneath the nest ? Or better yet, carve out a small hole in the base of the actual nest, large enough for the suspended micro. Access to the micro could merely be sliding the 'fragile' nest up the support string, to expose the micro? Most muggles should stay well clear of such a cache.

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Why don't you take a tin can or something and layer it with paper mache until it looks like a real wasp's nest and then cleverly design a flap so that the cachers can get in and the wasps can't. Cover the nest with some sort of waterproff spray and it's done. Wasps can't get in and it would hopefully survive the elements.

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Why don't you take a tin can or something and layer it with paper mache until it looks like a real wasp's nest and then cleverly design a flap so that the cachers can get in and the wasps can't. Cover the nest with some sort of waterproff spray and it's done. Wasps can't get in and it would hopefully survive the elements. But mark the door with the Geocaching symbol so cacher's will know it is the cache and not just a nest.

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If there was just one wasp flying around trying to see if that is their home...

I seriously doubt a wasp would be confused as to whether a dead or artificial nest was their own home.

 

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Folks, I have found the absolute perfect solution for this idea, which I thought of over a year ago and looked into for myself. My solution involves a commercial manufacturer I deal with, but I haven't executed it because of the cost of producing just one. However, if there were enough interest, I could have a batch of 100 made up. What would a soda-can sized, bombproof, outdoor-durable fake wasp nest cache container that looks as real as...well, a real one be worth?

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