Wastrel

“ When he thinks the danger is over, he unrolls himself by degrees and looks about, and if all appears safe, he runs to a secure retreat. The common wood-louse will do the same. But what shall I call that instinct which leads a young wasp, within an hour after it has left its cell, to sally forth and collect that curious paper, for it is nothing else, with which they either form their cells, or make that shell-like covering for their nest, which must add so much to the warmth so necessary for the well-being of the infant grubs? ”

“ One of them, half emerald and half pale-pink, boldly enters the burrow of a Fly-hunting Wasp at the very moment when the mother is at home, bringing a fresh piece of game to her babies, whom she feeds from day to day. The elegant criminal, the Golden Wasp who does not know how to dig, takes this moment when the door is open to enter. ”

“ The birds do help us with caterpillars and slugs, I'm bound to own; and then we are always on the look-out to destroy wasps: and as to the birds, I dodge them with netting; and sometimes we take the nests out of the fruit-trees, as much as to tell them to go elsewhere."
That evening Jack went into the gardener's cottage and saw the wasp's nest. It looked like the cells of bees made in whity-brown paper. ”

“ About a hundred yards from my hut I met a swarm of wasps, which induced me to return and ascertain whether my conjectures were confirmed; and there I found an immense number seeking an entrance, evidently with a view of plundering me of my honey. It was not long ere they found admission through some of the apertures in the roof. Knowing that my honey must go,—for a swarm of wasps is not to be molested with impunity,—I turned away to pursue my walk with the reflection that they only took what they could get, and suited their appetites, the business of my own every-day life. ”

“ And the Bug sang in crooked words, so that those who listened knew that the swarm was the Sea Valley tribe, that the bears were the Meat-Eaters, and that the lazy wasp was Split-Nose. And when the Bug sang that the bees listened to the wasp till the swarm was near to perishing, the people growled and snarled, and when the Bug sang that at last the good bees arose and stung the wasp to death, the people picked up stones from the ground and stoned Split-Nose to death till there was naught to be seen of him but the heap of stones they had flung on top of him. ”

“ In a lowered voice she added with a triumphant grin, "It's a wasps' nest."
"A wasps' nest," he repeatedly blankly. "What do you mean by a wasps' nest?"
"Just what I say, a boiled wasps' nest."
He was somewhat aghast. "Mrs. Machin, was that dose actually made out of a wasps' nest?"
"It was. You get the nest when the wasps are settled down for the winter. You boil it three hours with plenty of sugar and a little rum, and then strain and bottle it. There's nothing in the nature of a cough it won't cure."
"Most remarkable," said Vale, "I'd never heard of such a thing." ”

“ He shook the hair, but the wasps came with the tidings that the drove was not on the surface of the earth, he rubbed the fish-scale, but the fishes said the horses were not under the water either; so, in his despair, he seized the mole's claw and scratched on the ground with it.
Then you should have seen the wonder! The wasps buzzed, the fish searched all the water in the world, and the moles began to rummage the earth, furrowing it in every direction as if they meant to make it into pap. ”

“ The graceful form of the hunting insect rapidly overhauled its fleeing prey, and the wasp dashed in and closed with the bee at a point almost over the heads of the tribesmen. In a clawing, biting tangle of thrashing, transparent wings and black bodies, the two creatures tumbled to the earth. They fell perhaps thirty yards from where Burl stood watching. ”

“ Yet I go back to the image of an irritated wasp as perhaps offering the best illustration; of some large tropical wasp advancing angrily towards me, as I have witnessed a hundred times, not exactly flying, but moving rapidly, half running and half flying, over the ground, with loud and angry buzz, the glistening wings open and agitated; beautiful beyond most animated creatures in its sharp but graceful lines, polished surface, and varied brilliant colouring, and that wrathfulness that fits it so well and seems to give it additional lustre. ”

“ It is not necessary to hold your breath or wet your fingers, as is commonly supposed; the above classic charm will work quite as well without. After holding the insect in the hollow of your hand for a moment, take him boldly between your fingers, roll him, pull him, squeeze him, and twirl him as you will; no amount of abuse will induce him to sting. Perfect faith in the above will enable any one to handle a wasp with impunity. ”

“ Who has not seen wasps penetrate into our kitchens, or dart on the joints in a butcher’s shop, cut off some scrap of flesh which suits them, and carry away a tiny spoil for the use of their larvæ? When half-closed shutters allow a ray of light to fall on the floor of a room where the house-fly is taking a comfortable nap, or brushing its wings, who has not seen a wasp suddenly enter, pounce upon it, crush it in its jaws, and flee with the booty? ”

“ Have you ever found one of those tiny round nests, like ashes of paper, which apparently grow on a stalk, and in which two or three yellow and black tree-wasps live? It is the easiest thing in the world to scrape acquaintance with those wasps; kill an ordinary housefly and give it to them. ”

“ Sometimes the prey is at once dismembered, sometimes on the way, sometimes at the nest. The wings, in which there is no nourishment, are cut off and rejected; the feet, poor in juices, are also sometimes disdained. There remains a mutilated corpse, head, thorax, abdomen, or part thereof, which [127] the wasp chews repeatedly to reduce into a pap for the larvæ to feast on. I have tried to bring up larvæ myself on fly-paste. The experiment was tried on a nest of Polistes gallica, the wasp which fixes her little rose-shaped nest of gray paper cells on the bough of some shrub. ”

“ Well, I thought I would do as I was told, especially as I knew of a tremendous big wasps' nest under the eaves of our barn. I got a ladder and a lantern the very night after the lecture, and prepared to study wasps. The lecturer said that the way to do was to wait till the wasps go to bed, and then to creep up to their nest with a piece of thin paper all covered with wet mucilage, and to clap it right over the door of the nest. Of course the wasps can't get out when they wake up in the morning, and you can take the nest and hang it up in your room ”

“ It's rather a touchy job, is taking a wasp's nest,—very different from hiving bees; we give them a home, but we take one from the wasps.
"If the queen bee falls into the new hive, the bees are right enough—they are sure to go where she is; but the wasps are naturally angered and frightened at being suffocated out of their home. So, I say, keep clear of wasps' nests; those jobs are best done on the quiet." ”

“ The females, the chief [262] object of my examination, are not far from a hundred strong. Peaceable now and half-numbed, the population of the nest may safely be subjected to this sifting and shifting. Tweezers are all that I need. The whole nest, installed in a large earthen pan, is covered with a wire-gauze dome. We have only to follow events day by day.
Two factors of decay seem to play a leading part when the Wasps’-nest is depopulated on the advent of the bad weather: hunger and cold. In the winter there is no more provender, no more sweet fruit, the Wasps’ principal food. ”

“ The weasel stands as the type of a large number of animals, such as the marten, sable, polecat, otter, skunk, &c.; all being characterized by a long body, short legs, and considerable energy of disposition. Some of the species are celebrated for their abominable odor.
The weasel is an active, bloodthirsty little animal, not exceeding seven inches in length from the nose to the tail. It is much about the same size as a rat, though more slender; but it is a mortal enemy to this animal, pursuing them to their holes, and killing them in great numbers. ”

“ I think it is of the wasp-kind, and plasters its mud nest in all sorts of places. It is afraid of nothing—likes to look at itself in the glass, and leaves its young in our charge. There is another sociable creature—hope it isn’t a wasp—which has built two nests under the edge of this table on which I write to you. ”

“ Sometimes fearing the multitude of wasps, he counterfeits and hides himself, his tail hanging out: and when he sees that they are all busie, and entangled in his thick tail, he comes forth, and rubs them against a stone or Tree, and kills them and eats them. The same trick, almost, he useth, when he lyes in wait for crabs and small fish, running about the bank, and he lets down his tail into the water, they admire at it, and run to it, and are taken in his fur, and pull’d out. Moreover, when he hath fleas, he makes a little bundle of soft hay wrapt in hair, and holds it in his mouth ”

“ The Wasp is now dragging her prey in her mandibles up a vertical, or at least a very steep surface, productive of frequent tumbles which send kidnapper and kidnapped rolling helter-skelter to the bottom, but incapable of discouraging the indefatigable mother, who, covered with dirt and dust, ends by diving into the burrow with her booty, which she has not let go for a single moment. ”

“ Wasps we knew well and disdained, storming them in their fastnesses. But these great Beasts, vestured in angry orange, three stings from which—so 't was averred—would kill a horse, these were of a different kidney, and their warning drone suggested prudence and retreat. At this time neither villagers nor hornets encroached on the stillness: lessons, apparently, pervaded all Nature. So, after dabbling awhile in the well—what boy has ever passed a bit of water without messing in it?—I scrambled through the hedge, avoiding the hornet-haunted side, and struck into the silence of the copse. ”

“ The Wasp you saw on the wood-pile was selecting [Pg 43] a home, like a careful matron, and was bundling the fibres together to use in the construction of her nest. This she was obliged to do without any help whatever, for all the other wasps had died the previous autumn, while she was left to sleep through the winter in some warm nook, then found a new colony in the spring. ”

“ As I shall mention elsewhere, this is the Fly that lays her eggs on the game the Wasp puts in the nest for her own baby; and the Fly’s offspring eat the food of the Wasp-grub, and sometimes eat the grub itself, if provisions are scarce. The way the Fly manages her business is interesting. She never enters the Wasp’s burrow, but she waits with the greatest patience for the moment when the Wasp dives into her home, with her game clasped between her legs. ”

“ The great pests of a garden are wasps, which destroy all the finer fruits just as they are coming into perfection. In 1781 we had none; in 1783 there were myriads; which would have devoured all the produce of my garden, had not we set the boys to take the nests, and caught thousands with hazel twigs tipped with bird-lime: we have since employed the boys to take and destroy the large breeding wasps in the spring. ”

“ Let us look into the burrow of a Wasp who stocks her grubs’ provisions in advance: if we select the moment when the insect is going in with its prey, we shall find in the cell a certain number of victims, the commencement of a larder, but never at that time a grub, nor even an egg, for this is not laid until the provisions are quite complete. ”

“ While digging, the body is held high by the straightening of the third pair of legs, and the dirt comes out behind in a rapid stream, flying to a distance of three or four inches. Before long the wasp is lost to sight, but every few moments she comes backing out, pushing behind her the dirt that she has displaced below. In about fifteen minutes the nest is ready, and the wasp turns her attention to scattering all the dirt that has been thrown out, sweeping the ground clean so that no sign of her work remains. ”

“ They attack wasps'-nests, when built on low shrubs, gnawing away the paper covering to get at the larvæ, pupæ, and newly-hatched wasps, and cut every thing to tatters, regardless of the infuriated owners which are flying about them. ”

“ A large wasp, an inch and one half long, which gives so violent a sting, that it sometimes gives the natives a fit of fever. It builds its nest on trees, of light dry grassy matter cemented together. It is black with a yellow patch round the middle of the lower body. ”

“ So swarms of summer flies, and spiteful wasps, may assail the branches of an oak, which lifts its head, storm-tried and old, above the hills. They move a leaf, or bend a twig, by their united weight. Their noise, fitful and malicious, elsewhere might frighten the sheep in the meadows. ”

“ Sometimes, for miles together, we had to proceed thus,—getting the canoe filled, and ourselves covered, with stinging and biting ants of fifty different species, each producing its own peculiar effect, from a gentle tickle to an acute sting; and which, getting entangled in our hair and beards, and creeping over all parts of our bodies under our clothes, were not the most agreeable companions. Sometimes, too, we would encounter swarms of wasps, whose nests were concealed among the leaves, and who always make a most furious attack upon intruders. ”

“ Do you think a wasp could make one alone? No, these are social wasps; that is, a great many live together. There are males, females, and workers. Some day we shall tell you how the wasps form their colony, but for this lesson we want you to study the nest. [552]
Notice the envelope which covers the cells. How many layers of paper are there in it? We might call each layer a clapboard.
Can you see any difference in the direction of the outside layers on top of the nest and those which are below?
Fig. 354. Interior arrangement of white-faced hornet's nest. ”