The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1900-09-15
INSECT AlRpArHs.
Certain Winged Creatures Seem 20
Have q Permanent Track
which They Follow.

The painless air has for long been
q favorlte figure with those gentlemen
the poets, vet certain -winged-crea-
lures act as though they left a per-
manent track in their fight through
it, Wasps cOngregated in the garnet
Of q big plantation house. The garnet
had four windows and was smoothly
hoored, though innocent of plaster,
OF any walls but roof and gables.
There were, of course, plenty of
cracks through which energetic
wasps could crawl. But the wasps,
both black and red, fell in a way Of
flying in and out by means of a brok-
en- pane in an upper window sash
The break was about two inches wide
by five in length. Inside they few to
the pane, poised a minute on the edge
Of the break, then sailed away. Com
ing home laden either with spiders to
pen their nests, or with wood pulp
for nest building, they also alighted
on the outer surface of the glass,
crawled to the hole, then crawled in
buzzing flew away, each to his nest,
The broken pane was some thirty
feet above the ground and had an out
look free of either shadow OF entan-
clement.
One spring, says the st. Louis Globe
Democrat, in the height of wasp in
dustry all the garnet windows were
opened, and left so for a week. For
the first three days, though the lower
half of the window was open, the
wasps continued to fly in through the
broken pane. Thus they found them
selves trapped-the lower sash fitted
close, and shut them in. Yet they did
not fly out again, but crawled round
and round, buzzing furiously and
singing each other when they en-
countered. Thus at least a dozen of
them met death. Those inside whenthe
lower sash was raised Jared somewhat
better. They few to what they
thought was the usual place, but, aft
er two or three hours of bewildered
crawling, dropped from the sill and
flew off, evidently recognizing the feel
of the outer air. They came in as
they had gone out, so escaped'further
trouble. The oldest thing of all was
that neat years wasps did not notice
the broken pane, though it stood ex-
actly as of old. Instead they chose
to go in and out through the cracks
and crannies under the ewes.
The dirt-dauber wasps had always
preferred this route, even when they
/ came to the garnet with mud balls for
their nests. But they did not love the
place as the other wasps did-the
plantation people thought it was be-
cause nobody cared how many nests
they built there.
The daubers are not merely good
masons, but perfect communists. Of
ten two or three lowered in wait, with
mortar, ready to close a cell, which
another was stocking with eggs, and
spiders, stupefied, but not killed. As
soon as the egglayer few out the wall
ing-up began.
Sweat beas also haunted that par
ticular portico. The sweat bee looks
like a pocket edition of the humble
bee, but does not sting, and digs his
nest in sound soft wood. The portico
railing of seasoned poplar suited him
exactly. The rail ran horizontally.
He began upon the under side, chip
| ped out a hole as big as your finger,
ran it straight up for alitlle morethan
an inch, then channeled out galleries,
| either way, to hold his eggs and honey.
Sometimes also he carried in round
bits cut from the petals of roses. 1t
took him several hours to cut one
with his scissors-jaws, and sometimes,
after all, he dropped it, just as he
came home. He had the wasp's way
of alighting near and crawling inside
his own door. When the door was
stopped with a wooden plug he began
patiently to gnaw it out, but when it
was plugged with wax mixed with
rosin he gave it up-and began to cut
new nests in another rall. He was a
strict monogamist, and evidently did
not raise large families, for although
there was no getting rid of his sort,
there were never more than two OF
three pairs about any season. Several
other nests were seen in various places
on the plantation, and all had this
in common, they began underneath,
and ran upward, so rain could not pos,
sibly get into them.