I don’t remember how it came up, exactly, but I was talking to a friend about either wasps of Hanomags – sometimes it’s hard to differentiate the two – and I remembered this incredible chance chromatic event I once experienced. I was at the Lane Motor Museum, driving their Hanomag 2/10 “Kommisbrot” for a story and video for The Old Site, when I happened to notice this little wasp that landed on the engine lid of the car. Incredibly, the color scheme of that wasp exactly matched the Hanomag. Like, it matched perfectly, as though someone had that wasp in a jar when they bought this car in 1925 and took it to the paint shop and said, “make it look like this,” then handed over a jarred wasp.
It’s a fantastic paint scheme for wasp and car alike, I think, rich and deep caramel browns, working well with the warm wood of the wheels and the other bits of wood. If you’re in the market for a car or wasp, I can’t recommend it enough.
The wasp itself I finally identified, too: it’s a Ropalidia romandi, but to friends it goes by yellow brown paper wasp, and it makes nests that look kind of like lumpy paper bags.
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If you’re wondering if the queen has larger metasoma, then yes, good eye! The queen certainly has larger metasoma than the workers! Oh, and these fellas can sting multiple times without dying!
As far as the car goes, the Hanomag 2/10 Kommissbrot is a favorite of mine. It’s one of the first cars with “envelope” styling – the fenders integrated into the overall body design, not separate – and was a really clever little economy car with a rear 500cc single-cylinder engine, built between 1924 and 1928. In fact, between the World Wars, it was likely the most fuel-efficient mass-produced car you could get!
The little Kommissbrot (that nickname refers to a small loaf of bread fed to German soldiers) was usually a roadster, but had one of the boxiest hardtops ever built, literally almost a cube that you’d plop on top of the otherwise rounded car. I think they look weirdly appealing with that boxy top; Beau has one in his collection, so maybe we can get it running and do a big video about it at some point soon.
Call me when you capture a wasp on a Vespa.
Yes that would be rare. Most Italians are darker complexioned and Catholic.
I was going to say when you capture a wasp on a Marmon Wasp.
But I did also get the joke.
I once captured a wasp on my moped. Right between my cheek and helmet strap.
interesting intersection of international internal combustion and insect interloper
IIIIII see what you did there.
Wasps are nature’s motherfuckers and I hope you were taking the picture with a telephoto lens from a distance.
Wasps can suck it. Few things in life are more satisfying than hitting a nest with wasp spray from about 10 feet away and watching them drop out.
I don’t understand why bees get so much love and wasps get all the hate. Wasps like the cute car enthusiast pictured above are great pollinators and also eat caterpillars, who are much more damaging and piss me off way more than wasps.
Probably because wasps are more likely to approach humans vs. bees? And more human contact = more stings?
I know my sample size is small but those fuckers just LOVE to hang out with me on the porch while I can see 100 honeybees just minding their own fucking buzzness on the flowers in the yard.
You are correct that wasps do play an integral role in pollinating, population control of other stuff… but do they have to be assholes about it?
BTW the CFO of Daimler Trucks died this year suddenly because a wasp stung him.
Wasps mostly only become assholes later in the summer after their young stop bribing them with honey and they need a sugar fix.
Because, when I’m on a roof and those bastards start after me, there’s a non-zero chance I come off that roof way too quickly in mindless reaction. There’s one York unit we look after that’s far enough from the edge to not merit a safety barrier—but close enough that one could take the plunge.
-I wd40 that unit every time I get a chance, and haven’t seen a nest since I started doing so
>>seriously: apply wd40 *to places they like to build. They won’t build there for several months *can stain vinyl siding
Ok, now I want a Hanomag for light off-roading. Absolute killer approach angle!
it’s giving 1920s Canoo.
I like it.
The Best Picture Of A Wasp On A Car I’ve Ever Taken
OK, the bug is interesting, but which member of the Bush dynasty did you photograph on a car, and where is it?
I enjoy how the wasp is described in the same method as the car. Good fun.
Can’t decide if this more Gonzo or dadaist.
In roadster form it looks like a prehistoric Meyers Manx. Must not be a queen though because of the small metasoma.
Surprisingly advanced body design with a full-width passenger compartment in 1925.