Insect and Spider Identification: Unusual wasp nest, 1 by SteveValanch

SteveValanch wrote:
This nest was found by my brother. I'm thinking that based on nest material, the shape of the abdomen and the angular wings that these are paper wasps. What confused me was that the nest is so small, yet there would appear to be a queen and worker already. Clearly it's not big enough to have seen development of a worker already. Since the picture therefore seems to present an impossible scenario, one of my assumptions must be wrong. First, perhaps these wasps do not belong to the nest, and they raided it after they chased the resident queen away. Second, perhaps neither are queens, and these two workers belong to a nest which was destroyed, which them going off and following their instincts to build a nest. Finally, I was thinking they could be a queen and worker from a colony which overwintered, as the picture was taken in southern florida, and the worker followed the new queen as she left the original colony to build a new nest. Of note, these wasps were apparently moving very slowly when my brother saw them, and he suggests they froze when they noticed he was watching. My first thought was that they were displaced workers, and were starving to death as they can't digest solid protein, and would need larva, which they cant make. Anyone seen this before?