On September 28th, I put up a couple of posts mentioning wasps, one of which received a comment. It seems that people generally dislike and fear wasps – as I did myself when young – and I therefore thought I would like to try to redress the balance by finding some online pages that present a more positive view of this much maligned creature. That turned out to be far more difficult than I expected. Most pages are produced by pest control businesses and even those by organizations that study insects tend to adopt a cautionary attitude. I found it all rather discouraging.

Photo from Pixabay

I would like to recount three incidents with wasps that led to me revising my negative attitude towards our stripey friends. Each sparked my curiosity and increased my interest in them.

The first was once when, on holiday in France, we were eating our evening meal outside on a terrace. A wasp came down to investigate my plate. Instead of shooing it away, I waited to see what it would do. It descended very slowly like a little helicopter and very gently seized a tiny morself of food and then flew off with it! I imagine it was going to feed its catch to hatchlings in the nest as adult wasps can only consume liquids, not solid food.

The second incident was in the same house. On the balcony there were deckchairs with wooden frames and I noticed that each frame bore marks: straight lines 2 or 3 cm long and about a couple of millimetres wide. I vaguely wondered what caused them. Then one day I found out. I watched a wasp land on a deckchair and begin to walk slowly along, obviously intent on something. I looked more closely: the wasp was cutting a thin shaving of wood off the surface of the frame and rolling it up as she went. When she had a large enough roll, she flew off with it, leaving behind a damp line in the wood. I concluded that as wasps make their nests of paper, she was collecting building material.

The third incident was when we were sitting out on a pub terrace in summer. I had finished my fizzy fruit drink and the empty glass had patches of foam inside it. I watched as a wasp came down, flew into the glass, settled on the surface and began “hoovering up” patches of foam! I was enchanted by this, so much so that I went off to buy a folding magnifying glass to carry with me in order to get a better view of any siimilar encounters in future! (I still carry it and it has served well on many occasions.)

Photo Egor Kamelev

We know how important bees are to the environment and to our food production but wasps are important too. They also have a role to play in the pollination of plants and they are essential in controlling the numbers of other creatures that we consider pests, such as caterpillars that infest food plants. Without wasps, our environment would become unbalanced.

I accept that wasps can be harmful to humans. I have been stung myself several times, happily with no further consequences, though I know that there are people who are allergic to wasp stings and can become gravely ill as a result of being stung. A sting to your mouth or throat can be particularly serious.

If you do enounter a wasp, don’t panic. Don’t start flailing your arms about as this is likely to alarm the wasp and cause it to do exactly what you are trying to prevent: to sting you! Stay calm, usher the wasp away from your face with gentle movements, and the wasp will probably lose interest in you and fly away.

In autumn, when all work in the nest has come to an end, the wasps are left needing to find food in the environment. Hungry wasps can be aggressive. (Do you blame them? I don’t!) They will be attracted to food, especially to sweet sugary concoctions. If you eat outisde, particularly in autumn, don’t be surprised if wasps think they are invited to the feast. Many clashes between humans and wasps can be avoided by the humans behaving sensibly.

If you firmly dislike wasps, or are afraid of them, then I don’t expect this brief account to change your outlook. Or perhaps it will. Wasps are not your enemy. They are necessary to the environment and, as I discovered, can be fascinating to watch, as can all creatures on the planet.

This Natural History Museum page offers a reasonably balanced account of wasps and their importance.

This afternoon, as is my wont, I travelled into the City to meet Tigger from work. Before setting out, I checked the two weather forecast apps on my phone and what I saw there had me rummaging in the wardrobe for my winter coat.

On the way home, we had two waits for buses during which I was duly glad for my wise decision to wear a warm coat. On reaching home, I screen-grabbed the display of one of the weather apps.

As you can see, the thermometer is down to 11°C (that’s about 52°F) which I consider distinctly chilly. Admittedly, it was a couple of degrees warmer during the day but that’s hardly a consolation.

Over the last few days we have been lashed by the tail-end of Hurricane Lorenzo which has brought heavy rain leading to flooding in some parts. Winter, it seems, is taking revenge for the unusual heat waves we were experiencing just a few weeks ago.

During the heat, I found myself almost wishing for colder weather though I knew that really I hate the cold and do not react well to it. I sometimes wish I were a bear so as to be able to sleep through it till spring returns.

We have noticed that the trees and shrubs have produced abundant crops of berries this year which, according to some, presages a harsh winter. I do not know whether this is right but we shall see soon enough, I expect.

Entirely unrelated to this, I was intrigued to hear that astronomers who have been trying to determine the nature of the mysterious ninth planet that is thought to circle the sun in the distant suburbs of the solar system now suspect that it may in fact not be a planet but a black hole.

If they are right then I sincerely hope it is in a stable orbit because if it were to stray inwards towards the sun it could gobble up a planet like ours and still be ready for seconds.

Something to take our minds off Brexit if only for a moment or two…