Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-01-18
This and That
By Charles Z. TrdceWelE
SOUTHERN BUILDING.

Cs
II am always interested in anything about
bluebirds. There are quite q few Of them in
Rock Greek Park all winter.
VERY recently I saw q pair in the woods on
the north side Of the 18th fairway Of the
golf course out there. They were surpris-
ingly tame-let me get within 20 feet OF them,
where one was feeding on honeysuckle berries.
"A pair of these birds make q real sight to
behold at this time of year.
In those same woods saw several robins
during December, and think they live out
there all the year.
II have often wondered where hornets and
yellow jackets live in winter.
yellow jackets often build their nests be-
meath the ground, but they do not live In
them during the winter months.
Where do they 60?
Sincerely yours, v.o.H"
Most Of them, we believe, come to our attic!
Every Springtime, out they come, but how
Of a mystery.
We have to be careful, in the spring, not to
touch the curtains on the second floor.
Once we did this, and suddenly thought O
needle-or something-had been left In q hem.
It was something, all right-a fine big yellow
jacket!
And what q stingef he had!
Seriously, the social wasps are wonderful in
sects
Like ants, they build nests, but do not live
in them in winter.
In fact only portion Of the race lives at
all during the cold.
That is natures mysterious way with them.
The males and the workers die in the au-
tumn.
The lady wasps crawl away into protected
places to spend the winter.
An attic will dol And there are many other
possible places, some Of them little suspected.
sting-but how the females and the workers
can!
Males. females, and workers-that Is the So
cial insect setup. Even the natural production
Of these forms Is willed by nature for . certain
time OF the year. 1t proceeds according to
immutable insect formula.
Some nations Of human beings would like
to emulate them, evidently, but SO far no hui
man has ever discovered the secret.
Only worker wasps are produced during the
early summer.
Males and females appear in late summer
In the spring the females appear (probably
from our atticD and each one starts a colony.
She begins q nest, makes the scores OF cells
depositing an egg in each cell.
It Is all very complicated, and as precise as
the laws of the Modes and the Persians were
supposed to be.
She feeds the insects, until the first mature
wasps appear.
Then they take over!
Isn't that q system?
Now the female or queen lays eggs only In
the cells that the worker wasps build.
Some one estimated that one yellow jacket
nest contained more than $4,000 cells.
Vespa germanica Is regarded rs the most
common Of OUR yellow jackets.
Vespa maculata is another famous wasp, the
white-faced hornet. The nest Is made OF
paper, real paper, manufactured by the crea-
lures. Wasps were really the first paper makers.
This wasp paper is made out Of wood pulp
secured from boards or trees where the bark
is of.
The wasp works backward, scraping OF the
pulp and moistening it as it goes thus making
q neat round ball Of paper pulp.
Wasps commonly known as mud-daubers
pack their cells with paralyzed spiders, as
many as 260 spiders, some one has estimated,
to each 20 cells. The spiders are alive but
cannot move, thus furnishing fresh food at
all times.