I, for one, am not someone who will be easily – or ever – convinced that wasps are in any way lovable.
That said, they can built some pretty-looking nests if you give them some colorful tools!
University of Florence biology major Mattia Menchetti came up with the idea: he would slowly fed a captive colony of paper wasps different colors of paper over time.
The result? Nests that look more like trippy kaleidoscopes than the houses of terror that they actually are.
It’s not the first time scientists have realized that the insect world can get more colorful than nature intended – sometimes, with no intentional human intervention at all. In 2012, a group of French beekeepers discovered that their bees were creating green and blue honey. The culprit?
Bits of M&M shells they had found at a nearby waste processing plant.
Honestly more depressing than magical, if you ask me. Which no one did, I realize.
These pictures still 100% give me the heebies, even if they’re technically pretty.
What about you? Are you a wasp fan now?
If so, please explain yourself or submit for voluntary psychological hold.
It’s for your own good, I swear.
Check out Mattia’s Twitter or Facebook for more pics like these, or to see what amazing thing this young scientists comes up with next!