Think of it as an alternative houseplant, a method for decorating an indoor space with a bit of the great outdoors. Wasp nests have become a surprisingly sought-after home décor commodity, with some priced at up to $250 per specimen.
The nests have a kind of odd beauty that has compelled people to hang them in their living rooms, offices and dining spaces. They are one of a kind, hard to retrieve and, unlike houseplants, cannot be cultivated. As swaths of the country decorate their homes with fall’s bounty — pumpkins, gourds, spooky bric-a-brac — a select group climbs multistory ladders to harvest these prized nests after their inhabitants largely die off in the first few autumn frosts.
When brought indoors as decoration, the wasps’ onetime home assumes the role of a natural sculpture, with a look that both “elevates living spaces” and evokes an “air of danger,” said Anthony Vesnaver, a founder of the Newburgh Vintage Emporium in Newburgh, N.Y.
For years, Kyle Vierling, a florist in Sylvania, Ohio, had one such nest displayed on his living room shelf, with the branches it was built on still attached — further accentuating its organic form and make. Recently, Mr. Vierling incorporated the specimen, which he described as “special and ephemeral,” into an arrangement using Japanese ikebana principles, mixed with other foraged components.
City dwellers looking to add a touch of nature to their homes are often the ones interested in the nests, Mr. Vesnaver said. He said he had sold three at his antique mall in the last month. “It’s people with a keen view on aesthetics,” Mr. Vesnaver added. He attributed their popularity to a reaction against mass-produced interior products.
Only one stinging insect creates these variegated, collaged-looking nests: the North American baldfaced hornet. A type of wasp, it spends much of its brief life cycle, which lasts from spring to winter, building these hanging abodes for its colony and queen.
A small nudge of one of these nests can dent its outer layer, and therefore shipping them is risky business. While the nests at Mr. Vesnaver’s store cost $40 to $70, many sellers on online marketplaces like Etsy price theirs upward of $150, with shipping fees sometimes hovering around $100.
Dan Duchene is one such Etsy dealer selling baldfaced hornet nests for luxury prices, including a 16-inch specimen listed for $270. He likened it to nature’s version of an architectural model.
Mr. Duchene, who lives in Pembroke, Ontario, across the Ottawa River from Quebec, said he recently sold another nest to an engineer who appreciated the complexities of the habitat that the hornets had built for themselves. That notion of domesticity and hard work, Mr. Duchene thinks, is part of their appeal.
While some buy the nests, others harvest them straight from the source: outside and often very high in tree canopies. There’s only a short window of time to retrieve the nests responsibly. One must wait long enough after the first few frosts to ensure that a nest is empty, but act soon enough so that its paper-thin construction is not damaged by wind, rain or hungry birds.
Nathan Brown, a horticultural designer in Reno, Nev., purchased a 30-foot ladder to nab a larger nest that was lodged high in a tree at a local park. While he returned the $400 ladder soon after, he has kept the nest as part of a dried floral arrangement in his dining room. Mr. Brown has since acquired a second nest and mounted it to his wall like an artwork. “It’s a conversation piece,” he said.
The nests’ unique appearance comes from how they are built. Baldfaced hornets chew wood like dead tree stumps and backyard decks and create a pulp-like material that becomes a paper. It’s laid down in a particular pattern that ultimately becomes a series of interconnected rainbow-shaped sheets, said Tice Jacques, the proprietor of Coastal Stinging Solutions, a pest-control business based in Belfast, Maine.
Mr. Jacques has come to appreciate the nests’ look, so much so that he has a collection of some 150 of them displayed in his home. “There’s no comparison between them,” he said. “To me it’s art.”
Wasp nests have also proven a prolific source of inspiration for artists. The fiber artist Kay Sekimachi has used nest paper to craft small home objects like bowls. In 2019, the New York City-based artist Juan Antonio Olivares created an immersive installation in Berlin with two larger baldfaced hornet nests accompanied by sound and lighting effects.
“The paper they create is so beautiful and painterly, it could have been done with a brush,” said Wendy Wahl, an artist in West Kingston, R.I., who has deconstructed wasp nests found in her own yard for a series of collage works.
Ms. Wahl often works with natural materials she finds on her property. At one point, she was so committed to working with mushrooms that she started growing them. The wasp nest paper, however, has proved more difficult.
“I can’t create a nest,” Ms. Wahl said. “I have to wait for them to do it.”
Misty White Sidell is a Times reporter covering shopping and fashion trends.
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