The Savannah morning news., 1904-10-09
WOMAN MAKES
WASPS HER PETS.
Finds the Insects An Endless Source
of study and Declares They Are
Greatly MisjudSed.

of study and Declares They Are |
Greatly Misjudged.
From the New York Herald.
Hartland, Wis.-Miss Wilhelmina |
Enteman of this town has found pets
among wasps. She has made pets of |
several of these insects, and will hold |
a fiery little midget on the tip of her
finger as calmly as if it were a fly and |
tell his life history from beginning to
end.
Il have kept them for scientific |
study, of course" she says, but then
everything alive has really its human
element and one can't study the little |
midgets as I have and not find it out. |
Ants, you know, are supposed to en-
brace all the wisdom of the world. Go
10 the ant, thou sluggard, consider her
WAYS, and be wise, says a proverb;
and he should all be as busy as bees
but wasps seem to have been slight
ed in our household maXims. l can't
imagine how it's come about. They
are really as industrious as bees and
certainly as wise as ants. You can
not fool wasps. They have the sharp
est eyes of any insect in the world, and
there are any number of other good
points about them. They are intelli-
gent in such an ingenious way that
they are always amusing to watch.
lone day in watching a wasp's nest
cut away place of the wall. 1t
was only a tiny piece, but the wasp, in
her tour of inspection, instantly de-
tected the mutilation and began max
ing repairs. At an other time 1 tried
putting another wasp's egg in her nest
during her absence, and you should
have seen the fuss she made when she
discovered the imposition. Some wasps
regularly lay their eggs in other wasps'
have had centuries of experience in
the deception"
Miss Enteman began to hunt Wasps
in the fields as child, when her idea
of wasp study was to catch one of the
insects in a net pickle him in bot
tie and label him for future references.
She has kept swarms in her house,
where they have been her constant
companions. When she went to college
her Wasps went with her, and she
never lost touch of her wasp study
even while engaged in other work. She
has Travelled from one end of the coun-
try to the other collecting them and
has found more species of the wasp
family than most persons dream are in
existence.
1t was five years ago that Miss En-
feman began to make wasps her pet
study, and she says she has become
more interested in them each year.
"Wasps are a sadly misjudged lot,
she afirms There are so many
things of interest to be found in the
study and care of them that the stu
dent never grows weary"
Among the facts which her observa-
lions have taught her about wasps is
that a wasp does not sting unless it is
angry, and it does not get angry un-
less it is disturbed. The reputation
which wasps have acquired of being
violent tempered is, she says, unwar-
ranted. The popular idea is that they
work and live all day in state of
hatred toward other creatures and are
ever ready to attack anything that
comes in their way and fight 1T to the
DEATH Nothing could be further from
the truth, according to the wasp stu
dent.
The wasp is hard working. indus
trious little fellow, who goes about at
tending to his own business, and viii!
not modest or attack anybody except
when the occasion requires it. He is
no fiercer or more quarrelsome than
many other little animals. In the
years that Miss Enteman has devot-
ed her time to the study of them she
has been stung only few times. She
handles them constantly, taking them
from their prisons and holding them
in her hands, but it is seldom that one
violates her friendship by singing
her.
If one wishes to make the closer ac-
uuaintance of a wasp, all that is neces-
sary is to take a drop of honey or
syrup and place it on the tip of nm
ger. The wasp will come ana feed him
self to his satisfaction on the sweet,
and he will never, unless an effort is
made to destroy him, sting the per
son on whose finger he is. When the
wasp is taken and kept in captivity he
adapts himself to his surroundings, and,
If properly cared for will thrive in
a glass jar. Miss Enteman has had
a roomful of them imprisoned under
her charge, and she has seldom had
any die on her hands.
Wasps do not make a sound when
they wish to communicate with each
other. The long, flexible antennae,
which all species of the family pos
sess, are organs of speech and hearing
as we'll as feeling. The speech of the
wasp is rather feeling than speech.
When one meets another and wishes to
hold conversation with him he reaches
toward him with his antennae. The
other wasp extends his "feelers" in
the same manner, and soon the two
are carrying on conversation all to
themselves.
Wasps are of a decidedly sociabie
and even bibulous nature, and, given
the opportunity, will imbibe intoxicat-
ing liquors in sufficient quantity to
by nature in the shape of overripe,
fermented fruits, and when they feast
on these the effect is almost the same
on them as a multiplicity of cocktails
brings upon a man. Often in an or
Chard where fruit is lying on the
ground there may be seen many wasps
lying about in various stages of in
toxication When they begin to re-
cover they stagger and fall.
The curiosity of wasps is a marvel
When they enter a room they fly about
It, buzzing over everything with their
feelers outstretched, examining It as
If interested in it's construction. Their
curiosity may be said to begin at birth,
when they snip their way of the paper
shells in which they are born and be-
gin to run their long antennae over
everything within their reach. That
they learn TO know individuals there is
no doubt, because Miss Enteman has
frequently handled wasps which upon
being touched by any one else prompt
ly showed resentment by singing.