Evening star., 1949-06-30
This and That
By Charles z. Trace,1eH
- GLOVER DRIVEWAY.


Gould you tell us II you ever heard Of a
large bumblebee boring two holes in the bot
tom Of b wooden bird feeder? We have con-
suited your good column before.
"He tried it last year also. But this June
has made the two holes. There Is wildbird
seed In it. but that seems hardly the food
q bee would be after.
10. we will hope for an answer. Do you
know one? Sincerely. j. w. A."
This "bumblebee" is probably carpenter
wasp.
She is not seeking seeds as food.
She simply wants home. and thinks the
bird-feeding station the place to establish it.
That she tries from the bottom is not as
strange as it sounds, for she looks at the
world as wasp would
Humans look at the world as humans.
That is, with us, the door is on the side.
but with a bee or wasp. the entrance might
be anywhere.
Insects have no human conception OF up
and down." or right or left although
at times they might seem to do SO.
Actually, the smooth spread Of wood on
the bottom of the feeding station gives the
wasp the impression of being a good entry
point
She is just as much at home making q
door al. the bottom as from the top or side.
The carpenter wasp is q beauty.
She tunnels in solid wood. making tubes
several inches long.
Mud Us carried in to make the divisions
between the cells.
Thus the homes Of the social wasps as
they are all called. are used both as homes
and nurseries.
The work they do in building is highly
munistic. They have reached the stage Of
the ants, with three forms. males. females
and workers.
In this rather amazing social develop
ment. the kinds are produced according tc
the season. or time of year.
Only worker wasps are produced in early
summer.
In late summer, males and females ap-
pear.
The first touch of real autumn causes
the males and workers to die.
The females crawl away to some pro-
tected place such as the home the specimen
instanced is trying to build, and there spends
the winter.
In the spring the females come out and
each one starts colony
This wasp economy is unhuman. Without
doubt all communistic endeavors, at nc
matter what social level. strike the civilized
person as unhuman. That Is why ordinary
folks fear them. they are so strange. with
ways so subhuman.
Consider how the female carpenter wasr
operates. It is all up to her, in the spring
She builds the nest, constructs the cells
deposits the eggs in the cells. feeds and cares
for the young until the first mature wasps
appear. From then on. the other wasps TAXI
charge The female then lays eggs In thu
cells the workers build. She does no more
building.
Male wasps do not sting. That duty is left
to the females and workers.
Young wasps are fed on small insects
They particularly like flies. This is another
of natures protective devices whereby she
keeps the world from being overrun.
Wasps, as a class. are partial TO frui'
Juices, the nectar of flowers. and the honey
dew, so-called. caused by aphids or plant
lice. This honey dew is really disease mani
festation caused by the aphids.
yellow jackets and vhite-faced hornets
are two other interesting species. It has beer
estimated that rs many as $4,000 cells. eAcf
containing . wasp. are found In one nest
The white faced hornet makes real papei
for his nest. It is just as much paper q u
made BY humans at pansr MIL