What on Earth?? Small and tiny creatures

This object, I think, begs the question - What IS that?

I walked into the storeroom barefooted one weekend, with a cup of coffee in my hand when suddenly a loud hissing at my feet sent me automatically leaping into the air with the agility of a champion athlete. On my return to earth I saw a night adder slithering frantically away from its previous position between my feet to an overturned box on the floor
It was a beautiful specimen indeed and I went in search of my camera. On my return I found it gone!

But spotted this instead . . .

It is a hornet's mud nest and consists of chambers in which the eggs hatch. The hornet - only the female - collects mud, rolls it into a ball big enough to carry in her mandibles and then forms a series of tunnels with her feet, sometimes flying long distances in search of mud. This picture shows three distinct different colours of mud used

The hole on the top left had debris in it from the hatching pupa
She lays an egg or eggs (depending on the species of hornet) into her insect prey after stinging it which paralyses, but doesn't kill
She then places it and others into a tunnel and when its full seals the entrance with mud
The eggs hatch into larva and feed on the live host till its consumed then pupate into adults

This little guy is no night adder, but was mighty feisty none the less!

The grass next to it serves to show exactly how small it really was!

PS!
An article by the university of Florida I viewed while looking for information on the wasp involved, mentioned that while the female did all the work from building the nest, laying the eggs and guarding the pupa the male hornets would collect around some flowers and feed on nectar but do zip to assist!

Sounds like a drinking party to me!!