Ok, last post today, THEN I promise I shall do some work.

I was sitting on the toilet, minding my own business whilst I…did my business. I momentarily glanced to my right, as something had caught my eye. I did a double take when I realised that there was a very large, very mobile wasp idly taking a stroll along the top of my bathroom basin.

I don’t usually mind wasps - although many people view them as pests, they’re actually very welcome as a form of pest control themselves. So I don’t object to the odd one whizzing around me - I find that the less you flap, the less they bother you.

However - those that have been reading my blog for a while (come on, there must be someone?!) will remember that last summer, we had a wasp’s nest nearby, which resulted in me getting a very nasty sting.. I was up a ladder, idly snipping away at the rampant ivy, obviously ignorant of the furore I was causing in the heavens above. I only realised when one of the blighters very firmly planted a sting under my eye (cue lots of flapping, screaming, crying, pain etc). So since then I’ve been, let’s say, a little more cautious than usual around wasps. When we were doing the kitchen ceiling we saw the actual nest - a thing of absolute beauty. Just amazing - and to think, it was mostly constructed out of chewed up bits of Smallest Smallholding’s fencing.

I thought I was rather stealthy in sorting myself out, and removing myself to a safe distance. I don’t profess to know much about wasps, but I’m guessing that this rather large specimen is in fact the queen. She must have made her way up through the bathroom floorboards and emerged from the tiny gap by the bath. By the time we’d located the nest last year the pest control man had said it was late enough in the season that they’d be dying out anyway. I can safely say that 6 weeks after that, we still had wasps manically and drunkenly flying into windows and the house. Plus my sting attack. But I’m kind of glad because I just hate the idea of killing anything just because it’s not convenient (ok ok I know that a whole swarm of wasps is downright dangerous) for me.

I think my presence annoyed queenie a bit, especially when I put a big fat mug over her so I could run and grab the camera. Her abdomen started pulsating, almost wagging like a cat’s tail just before the cat swipes you. It was then that I decided it was probably best to send her on a short flight out of the window onto the roof. I imagine she’ll find a nook, cranny or suitable nesting site soon. I just hope it’s far away from me.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 24th, 2008 at 5:13 pm and is filed under wildlife. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.