Country Life
EVERYONE Seems to be plagued with wasps this summer and the invasion is much earlier than in previous years for the simple reason that countless wasp nests have been washed out in the banks of fields and along the hedgerows. The plague began in early August with us. We put out all our wasp traps—a pot of quince jelly that no one fancied came in very handy—and we began to think that with so many wasps coming indoors so early in the season the nuisance would end quickly. Alternating periods of warmth and colder weather have produced more and more and each time we have a spell of rain the invasion is renewed. It means, I think, that when the brood and the egg-producing queen are drowned the flying members are cut off from their base and forage for themselves without the wasp- comfort of a nest to which they can return when the air is cooler at evening. There is no consolation in thinking that next year we may have fewer wasps. One or two queens will soon restore theilbalance,. for each can multiply herself in tens of thousands in a summer. At times I wonder, as a child does, why they were created but of course they are part of an extraordinarily complex pattern of insect and animal life. One cannot say where the cycle of host and parasite begin, but being conscious of the pattern at times makes one hesitate to use anything that kills Pests in large numbers.
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