Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1908-01-18
WAsPs AS PAPER MAKERS.
Wonders Of a Nsst-Havoe Wrought
by the Insects.

Wonders Of a Nest-HaVoe Wrought
by the Insects.
1t is the last loving act of the
common wasps in every colony to
elect certain number of their lady
fellows and go through the process
of feeding them up" for wasp
queen earns that title simply by rea-
son of her size and not because of
any claim to aristocratic descent.
This feeding lasts the queen wasps
all the winter through, during which
time they hibernate in some warm
corner out of the way of frost and
snow, says the Pail Mall Gazette.
About March they come forth
once more and proceed to look about
for nesting place. Having chosen
site for this-generally in a hol-
low tree or in some sheltered and
sunny corner among dry rubbish
the queen forms cocoon of "wasp
paper" wherein she constructs
about dozen cells and lays an egg
in each. In due time the eggs be-
come grubs, and these are fed as
siduously by the queen mother until
they completely fill the cell. The
latter is then sealed up, and in few
days each grub, which meanwhile
has developed wings and legs and
changed from white to yellow and
black, emerges as full grown wasp.
The real work of nest building
now begins, and the whole party go
off together in search of agconven-
lent hole in the ground for the per-
manent headquarters. This at least
is what the common wasp does.
There are several varieties in Great
Britain, and some of them build on
the branch of a tree or in the grass
of bank. The little family works
very hard to manufacture the ma
terial of which the nest is made-a
wonderful substance of the texture
of paper pulped up from the bark
Of trees in the wasps' mouths. The
wasp was making paper from wood
pulp for centuries before man
thought of it. This nest proper
contains a large amount Of comb,
and in each cell the queen lays an
egg.
Things now proceed apace, the
feeding of the grubs and sealing
them up in their cells going on as
before, but the queen is now assist
ed in her labors by her dozen or so
original subjects, and the others join
in the work as they hatch out. AS
the summer advances the nest gets
stronger in numbers until the very
end of the season, and even then
some of the grubs never see the
light. A wasps' nest may contain
as many as 10000 wasps, but an
average nest would be about half
that number.
Wasps are such hardworking lit
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destroy their wonderful labor, for
the nest is triumph of architec-
tural skill. At the same time they
commit such havoc in orchards and
are so oQblesome everywhere
where food or drink is to be found
that every mans hand is against
them. They seldom sting unless
laolested or touched by accident.
I A certain amount Of good is done
by wasps in killing noxious insects,
especially house flies, but this one
good act is quite overbalanced by
their many deeds of evil. All sorts
Of methods are adopted, therefore,
to destroy them at nighttime in
their nests, but the very best plan
of all is to procure some cyanide of
potassium, a deadly poison, from q
chemist and place a teaspoonful
within the hole that leads to the
nest, afterward sealing the entrance
with a sod Of turf. Next morning
every wasp viii be dead, and the
nest may be dug out and destroyed,
brood, comb and all.
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