Weird Maine Winter Weather Prediction: Look to the Wasp Nests?

There's an old Mainer-ism for everything.

If you grew up in Maine, and especially if your family goes back a few generations, you've probably heard every old Mainer saying under the sun. If not old sayings, then old ways of judging weather and whatnot. Sort of like how I imagine the whole Groundhog's Day thing got started. Superstition is strong around these parts.

So as winter is fast approaching, whether we like it or not, you could probably rattle off a bunch of different tools for predicting winter. My grandfather used to say that color of the bottom of the clouds in August were a solid indicator of the upcoming winter. He said darker bottoms meant more snow, lighter ones meant less. Can't say I've ever scientifically put that to the test.

Some Mainers believe that wasp nest height can tell you about snow.

It's funny, I never would've randomly remembered it on my own, but I saw a post on Reddit, where the person took a photo of a wasp nest some 50 feet in the air. And apparently, the height needs to be judged as the leaves fall. The higher up the nests, the more snow we're going to get.

Now, to be fair, I had a wasp nest in my yard this year that was a mere 6 feet off the ground. The only reason it's not still there, is because I walked into it and got stung in the face a bunch of times. Needless to say, I emptied half a can of Raid into the nest that night and killed them all, hahaha. Then I removed the nest and burned it.

The Farmer's Almanac seems to confirm the concept, at least. Whether or not you can really rely on it in an earnest way is up for debate. I'm not saying you should hedge your bets based on the height of the nests, but here we are. We're talking about it. So there must be a grain of truth in there somewhere, right? You'll have to decide...

Generally wasps are jerks, but so is every other biting critter on this list...