Two Ways with Wasps
Wasps, which begin to be a menace as the plums ripen, can be destroyed by those who wish to destroy them in two ways which are more or less new to most people. The more interesting is perhaps hardly capable of a general application. It is to keep a wasp-eating toad. A writer in The Field said he took the roof off a hole where he had seen wasps busy and found a small nest almost emptied of grubs and quite deserted by the queen. A well-fed toad lay at the side of it and had spent his time in eating the grubs as they emerged. The second method, which is open to anyone, has been found very effective in some trials of this year. It is to scatter a little derris powder in the mouth of the hole. The powder is said to be quite as lethal as the more dangerous poisons usually employed, and it is unnecessary even to block the hole. The active wasps all perish, and the nest may be then dug out without inconvenience. This strange root, used for centuries by the Chinese for poisoning fish, is found more and more useful by gardeners. It first proved its efficacy in the destruction of the weevils that attack raspberries and loganberries ; but there is scarcely an insect of this nature in the whole index expurgatorius that does not fall an easy victim. There have been cases where workers who prepare the powder have been mildly affected, but in general it may be called harmless.
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