Wasp research. Numbered wasp building a nest with different coloured paper. Many wasps are social insects, and so form a colony containing numerous individuals that can display collective behaviour, like building complex nest structures. A wasp nest is made from chewed woody material. In this case, the researchers have provided a source material of different colours of paper, allowing them to track the stages of nest building. The nest is initially built by a queen wasp who lays eggs. The first few eggs develop into worker wasps who then finish building the nest and support the queen as she lays more eggs.