in the area or if this was an isolated occurrence. D. media builds aerial paper nests above ground. These nests are typically found in shrubs, trees, and sometimes under the eaves of buildings. Nests are made of paper that comes from the digestion of wood and are generally wide and tall. Colonies are often found in both urban and rural areas. These wasps prefer to build nests close to the ground where humidity levels are higher as well as in open areas where the nest is subject to large amounts of sunlight. Colony cycle The colony cycle of D. media is about 3.3 months and occurs between early May and the end of August. The nests are initiated in early May when a single queen emerges from her overwintering hibernation site. All queens in the same region tend to emerge from hibernation and initiate nests at about the same time and do not disperse over weeks or months as in some other species. The queen rears about 10 workers by herself and it takes about 30 days for these workers to mature to adults from eggs. The first workers emerge around early June and start small cell building, where males and workers will be reared, and begin foraging for the colony. The colony continues to grow and large cell construction begins in early July which is where the new queens and some males will be raised. A mature median wasp nest will have about 1000 total cells. Around 320 will be small cells, 680 large cells, with an average of 800 wasps reaching adulthood. The first queens will emerge in early August and disperse to find hibernation sites. The rest of the workers, the old queen, and the males will begin to die off with the colony terminating by the end of August. However, workers are sometimes seen as late as early November. Nest structure The median wasp like many other species of wasps builds its nest out of pulp that comes from the digestion of wood. Their nests have been reported to be light yellow or light to dark grey in color depending on the material used to build the nest. These nests are about tall and wide with a thick roof. Mature nests have 2-4 circular or oval shaped combs that are surrounded by a thick envelope. There are two types of elements connecting combs. One is a