No pictures at the moment, but with the leaves off the trees, something caught my eye back in the woods. It was white, or a dirty white, and the size of a medium sized pizza. It isn’t a hornet’s nest, and from the construction looks like a wasp nest, but I’ve never seen a wasp nest anywhere near the size of this thing. I snuck up on it, and I think it’s an empty nest, but wasn’t going to disturb it, just in case it was active. I’d say it was about an inch and a half thick, and sort of flat, though the edges had drooped or sagged a bit due to the weight of the thing.

Any ideas of what winged critter would build something that size? It was about 5’ off the ground, on top of a limb.

When I was a kid I would have thrown a rock at it.

Gargoyle

Dont mess with it, haha. I was gonna show the kids something one day and messed with it. I got stung in between the eyes and ran about a 1/4 mile. Made the kids day. haha

To early. Hornet spray and take down the nest.

Superduty’s answer got me to actually do a bit of research on wasp types and nests. It would seem that the nest I saw is a Red Wasp (aka Red Paper Wasp) nest. Per the internet, they can be as big as a dinner plate. I did not know that.

Wins the Internet.

Today's pesticides are creating super pests.

I always back off to about 10-15 yards and put a load of number 9's though anything like that.

killing our pollinators needed for for plant production also

Did it look like this?

I was thinking red wasp nest as well. Growing up there were some huge ones in some of the barns I hauled hay to, One of those barns 9 to 10 inch nests were common near end the Summer.

The Red Wasps are in their "winter" home now which is why you can often find them in deer stands in the fall. Trying to find a dry place to get in for the Winter dormant time. Interesting I remember from somewhere only fertilized female wasp survive the Winter with getting frozen yet survive, to create more wasp the next year.

Bingo.

There used to be some huge black wasp nests on Lake Fork after it filled. Fishing along, bump a tree & all hell would break lose! We went swimming lots of times.

When they have wasp on them... mason jar 3/4 full of water... mix in a little dish soap... throw on nest... bada bing bada boom.... no more wasp.

Just a wasp nest. Try driving at night with the window down in the spring and hit one going to the feeder at night! Fun times!!

Works like a charm.

X2,
I usually shake it up to get the suds going

When we were kids we would take a cane pole,knock the nest down,drop the cane pole and run like the Dickins. Come back after the wasp had dispersed,get the nest off the ground and dig out the little white grubs/larva inside. Best fish bait to be had!

A torch on a pole works fine.

bees around here seem to be turning something viscous. Last twenty years they are no bother . This year all they seem to do is dive bomb me when i am outside. I hit another nest that was in the ground. I drove a drone (rc car ) up to it and the bees left about 300 stingers in the tarz.

Those ground hornets and yellow jackets will absolutely swarm you. They got my BiL’s younger brother many years ago. He jumped on his 3 Wheeler to run from them, flipped it and broke his leg and they stung him to death. Dad got swarmed by them years later, and what saved him was how cold the day was. He was in a thick coverall and had on head covering. They got him on the face, but not too bad. He was too old to run. I had a real close call too. Scary.

Dang thats crazy . Bad news for sure.

I hit a nest of ground wasps one day while weedeating. I immediately got hit about ten times, mostly head and hands. Dang things chased me into the house. I killed 12-15 inside the house. Meanwhile they were swarming and attacking my weedeater. Waited til dark and poured some lighter fluid down the hole. Nasty things. They looked like a cross between a honeybee and a yellow jacket.