A nature reserve manager at Norfolk Wildlife Trust has been forced to work from home after wasps built a metre-wide nest around a bookshelf of ring binders in her office. Eilish Rothney, who manages the Trinity Broads site in Ormesby St Michael, first spotted the wasps on 11 June and decided to let the colony establish itself rather than remove it, viewing the situation with curiosity rather than alarm.

The nest began behind a box on the floor and has since spread across the shelving and into crevices around the binders, growing to roughly a quarter of its current size when first discovered. Rothney says she plans to leave the nest undisturbed until autumn, when the worker wasps will naturally die off and newly emerged females will leave to hibernate before returning as queens next spring. The Trust shared a photo of the nest online, joking about "new colleagues" who skipped recruitment, while Rothney has urged people not to fear wasps and to stay calm if approached by them.