Evening star., 1949-07-18
This and That
BIZ Charles E. TracepeH

All right so they were bumblebees
Here comes Mrs. U. r. Of Franklin street,
who writes:
MY father, Connecticut Yankee. used to
tell OF the borers-boring bumblebeeS-that
bored holes in the wooden eve troughs at his
childhood home. Some years ago saw the
porch posts and ceiling boards riddled in
an old Maryland farmhouse.
And, begging your pardon, II they were
wasps, instead of bumblebees. maybe have
been zebra all of these years and never
knew it,
May I share a couple Of memories that
interested and amused me.
"The mockingbird just telling the world
from the tip top of tree. Some small birds
thought to alight in the same tree. The
mocker broke OF long enough for two or
three loud jays at which the small birds
swerved to another perch and the mocking-
bird resumed his roundelay
"A number Of small birds that gather in
such flocks Gin Maryland) before fall mi
grafton. They were on the brow of small
hill facing stif west wind. They would
fiutter up 10 to IS feet. then holding their
wings out stif1ly, would soar aloft on the
wind, and then would hutter down again.
whether they were just playing. or if
they thought they would learn to soar. I
could not decide"
A. B. of Buchanan street writes:
Since I am an amateur entomologist,
I was interested in the inquiry concerning
the 'bumblebees' that tunneled into q bird
feeder.
Il was surprised at your calling this in
sect carpenter wasp. The insect COM
monty known as carpenter wasp is a black
and white wasp which resembles q bumble-
AyN1v >k-I..
not social; there are only males and females,
and no workers
The insect probably responsible for the
burrowing is the American carpenter bee,
which resembles a bumblebee very closely.
This species is also solitary.
Il am a regular reader OF your column
and think you are doing a very fine lob
In encouraging people to appreciate ma
ture.'
Wasps (really) in the living room window
are still at it.
Two weeks have gone by, and the five
have created just II cells.
. The aggregation is not more than m inch
by an inch and half.
But the cells grow longer day by day.
The wasps enter almost completely now.
AT rest, the wings are folded, but when
alarmed they come up like the propellers
Of hellicopter.
"Hellicopter," it would seem, would be a
good name for these buzzers.
The buZzing we take rather on faith. for
to date We have not heard them make 4
sound.
just inside the screen, ut the TOP, with
the window firmly Shut and kept closed.
naturally. the wasps mind their own busi-
ness very WELL
1t is interesting to watch them fy up and
out the small opening which the carpenter
human) left 20 years ago.
Presence OF the wasps solves a MYSTERY
Always small insects had been noticed inside
that window, but since no one ever Thought
to stoop down and peer up, as one must do.
no one ever noticed the hole,
1t took the wasps 20 years to find it. bit
why they waited so long Is something Of a
mystery, too.
AT the present rate, the Black Five will
be all summer completing the work. Twelve
cells IN two weeks is not very fasts AS for
working all the time. as we stated, that was
giving them too much credit. Actually two
Of them are always resting. ut the back Of
the cell block, where it Is difficult to see them
until once spotted. After that 1t is easy to
see that there are at least two, and some
times three. there all Of the time. They seem
to be unhappy. churlish wasps, but pay no
attention to the human face. II the curtain
| Is moved, however, even so slightly, intense
activity Is shown, those wings coming up to
| the hellicopter position ut once.