Linda Sewelly age 10, of Barker's Point, N.B., for her question:

What do wasps use to build their nests?

Paper was invented in China and, we are told, the Chinese learned to make it from the wasps. For most of the wasps nest we see out in the open are made of paper. The main ingredient in the recipe is cellulose, or woody plant fiber. This is the sane ingredient from which we make paper. Mankind discovered this recipe only a few thousar5 years ago. Wasps have been making paper nests for millions of years. Other wasps were making nests of mud, stones aid mortar long before the human family came to live in the world.
The wasps that build paper nests are called social insects, for they live together in large families or colonies. The wasps that use mud, stones and mortar are called solitary insects, for they live by themselves, Many wasps help to build the paper nests which are sometimes six feet wide,, Maybe you have seen one a foot wide, hanging like an upside down mushroom high in a tree.
The first few cells of a new nest ere made by the queen wasp, All tI B rest are made by the worker wasps, who also tend the babies. These bussr insects chew up plant fibers in their tough jaws acrd mix it well with spit. They shape this paste into six sided cells and use it to make several layers around the outside of the nest. When it dries, the paste of cellulose and wasp spit becomes paper.
The solitary wasp builds a few cells all by herself. She may stick them to a rafter, in a hollow tree or dig a hole far them in the ground. Some of these lonely wasps chew up dirt and make it into a paste. The mixture dries as a hard mud, which is why we call these wasps the mud daubers. Other mix small pebbles with the mud, which makes an even stronger material.
Still others work as carpenters by chewing holes    into tree trunks.
When the nest of the solitary wasp is finished, she goes marketing. She brings home the insect meat which her babies will need later. Soma of these babies eat crickets, some eat spiders and some eat certain flies. The mother wasp is always sure to find the very food they will need,  She stings the victim and drags its body to the nest. Then she lays her eggs: and, when they hatch, the little grubs will find a pantry full of food.
The big paper nest of the social. wasps continues to grow all summer long. The queen lays eggs End more eggs. The eggs hatch into grubs dhd sleep for a while in silken cocoons. Then they hatch into winged wasps. The growing children are tended and fed by the worker wasps.
The babies of the solitary wasp however, are left to fend for themselves. As a rule, the mother makes the nests p puts in a supply of groceries and goes off, She does all this work and planning end never even sees her children.