WASPS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR,"]
SIR,—One of your correspondents of October 7th asks for con- firmation of a statement that wasps will pierce and destroy calico, and that they make a curious clicking sound in doing so. A servant of mine tells me that in Gloucestershire she used to hear wasps make a noise "like a little machine" (i.e., a typing machine), while they riddled such materials with small holes. Her father, who was fond of his garden, used to cover ulyhis choice blooms with wrappings of lawn. These the wasps would perforate with a lot of small holes, not quite as big as a pin's head : two or three wasps—generally two—would be seen at work together. They seemed to prefer new pieces; they would not return to the same old piece day after day.—I
Previous page
