From Crisfield on Maryland’s Eastern Shore comes a story that a British gunboat lying offshore near Matthews County, Va., a young half-witted boy found a nest of these wasp papermakers and cut it from the limb from which it hung, then plugged up the entrance hole with mud. He took it down to the shore and showed it to the British sailors who asked what was in it. “A humminging bird’s nest,” said the boy. “Don’t you hear them inside?”
The sailors listened while the boy left the nest with them. The British took out the mud plug and at once the escaping wasps “proceeded to business.” They never stopped their work until they had made everyone of the British sailors jump into the water to escape. The boy must of had a joyful frolic with his boyish adventure of mischief.
Source: The Sun, January 11, 1898
Legends: A “Jug Wasps” Nest
Maryland in the War of 1812 
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