My Affinity with Wasps
It’s a strange thing, but I seem to have an affinity with wasps.
I lived in an attic many many years ago, and there were always wasps getting in. Back then I really didn’t know anything, and yet I would get a piece of paper and encourage the wasps, one at a time to get on the paper. Then I would open the screen and put them out. And I found myself talking to the wasps in a loving way.
I wasn’t thinking anything like Do no harm. I don’t think I had ever heard of it back then.
Once, only once, a wasp bit me. It was on my right ring finger. Even in the great ignorance that was mine – believe me, I was ignorant -- I felt the wasp had done something good for me, like whatever chemical that might go along with the bite was healing something in me. I remember thinking that somehow the bite had to be on that finger, on that joint, that moment. Of course, I never discovered what the reason could be.
My daughter had a sad story about wasps.
When she was about five, she and her best lfriend Jill found a wasp nest. They had taken a stick or branch and knocked the nest down from the eaves of the garage. Of course, they did this as children do without any thinking about it.
Then my daughter told me the mother wasp came back from somewhere and couldn’t find her children. The mother wasp kept flying around and around, looking for her babies. My daughter felt huge remorse.
What made me think of this was that the other day, there was a rather small furry spider on my desk. I really was going to squash it, and then I couldn’t. I just let it be. Now I don’t see it anymore anyway.
Please don’t think I’m preaching anything. Just telling a story. I slap mosquitoes and swat flies without a backward glance.
Somehow wasps have been an exception. And now maybe spiders.
Comments
Wasps are amazing!
For years now, we have a wasp (is it the same or her descendants?) fly into our bedroom (built out of cedar logs)and every spring, build a new nest or an addition to the previous nest. We have watched her, how she comes in from the window and finds her way to that specific spot and through some inner radar, finds her way out again. We have witnessed how she tierlessly flies in and out bringing in, minute amounts of stuff to create the mud, with which she builds her nest. Then, comes a time, when we don't see her anymore.
Just checked through Google and here is what I found about solitary 'mud dauber wasps':
"These wasps got their names because they construct "nests" or brood chambers from mud. These clusters of mud are attached to the walls of buildings. The female mud dauber collects spiders which she stings and paralyzes and then places inside the mud chambers. She then deposits and egg on one of the spiders and leaves and closes the chamber. The young larval wasp hatches and feeds on the spiders provided. It later pupates and changes to an adult wasp which emerges from its mud chamber.
People become concerned when they find the clusters of mud on their homes. If the mud nests have holes in them it means the wasps have completed their life cycle and have left. Control is not necessary since mud daubers rarely sting and are beneficial in getting rid of unwanted spiders." http://www.ivyhall.district96.k12.il.us/4TH/KKHP/1insects/waspfax.html
Come spring,..... we see one flying in and out again!
The spiders........we save them too! Especially the ones in the bathroom who can't climb out of the bathtub, after they have ended up there drinking some water. We give them a lift.
Mosquitoes have not been so lucky.
I was in Johannesburg recently and there was a bee swimming in the pool. It was actually trying to get out. I let it climb on my finger and rest. It so happened that I was having some muesli and kefir yogurt for breakfast...with honey. So I squeezed a drop of honey on my finger and watched the bee extended its tongue to lap up the honey. I love bees.
Outside the house I'm living in now, there's a mulberry tree and wasps love these trees. In the house I find little wasp nests all over the place and was watching a wasp slowly build its nest on the candle in the bathroom. Its an amazing process. The wasp goes out and fetches bits of mud by ingesting it. This is mixed with a type of saliva like substance in the wasp's mouth and it carefully walks around its nest layering layer upon layer in a circular motion until the nest forms a perfect dome.
They're such beautiful creatures.
After I moved to Portland from Fairfield I missed my two precious birds so much I found myself talking to insects. We live in the woods here and there are many large insects. Last summer a Mosquito hawk with a five-inch wing spread came inside and made himself at home. He reminded me of a Dragon Fly, perhaps they are related. That night when I went to bed he flew into my bedroom and landed on the wall above my head. I told him he could stay but would have to move over to a side wall.- I didn’t feel comfortable with him hanging on the wall above my head. He moved to the side wall and spent the night there. He spent the next day in the shower. My son-in-law thought he would be happier outside so carried him out and set him free. I actually felt some comfort in having the company of that little creature. I wonder what the experience was like for him.
Two dear little Cockatiels, Pookie and Pontouf, taught me there may be great emotional complexity and capacity for love in all creatures, even very tiny ones.
This is so amazing to me. I really thought I was the only person in the world who had a connection to wasps or spiders. I didn't think that anyone would respond even.
How little did I know. Xenia, One, and Beverly certainly did respond and in such touching ways.
By the way, you can read the whole story about Beverly's beautiful beloved birds here:
http://www.godwriting.org/godwriting/heavenpetals-samples-of-godwriting.htm
It was actually the pool railing where we found the nest. The poor mommy wasp checked every bit of that railing, over and over, looking for her babies. That may be the first time I realized that insects are people too.