Evening star., 1949-08-13
This and That
By Charles E. TracetoeH
"BETHEsDA, Md.

Dear Sir:
: you got us all interested In your wasps
and now you let us down by not writing
about them.
For heavens sake. tell US some more. I
never heard OF any one tolerating wasps
actually inside of their living room, even II
the window is kept down.
Don't they sting you?
I'VE had some on the porch and they made
life miserable for all us kids until my uncle
took 4 long pole and poked them down.
+ tAs he ran down the steps. he stumbled
over the dog coming UP and between their
yells and howls and the wasps we had lot
Of excitement for time.
"Iet US all know II your wasps are still
In the room and If you have been BIT yet.
yours, T. o. D.
With the window Gown, the wasps are
definitely not in the room.
They are between the window pane and
the screen.
and bronze ones are right at the 1oot OF tne
steps. ..
Needless to say, we keep that window down.
although the household would like to nave
1t up.
There is no upping 1t, however, Until fall
st the rate the wasps are going
For such speedy fellows. they seem end
lessly slow about their nest.
It now consists Of "a cells, with eight OF
them at the bottom capped with what seems
to be white wax.
The cell block is gray. undoubtedly gray
paper Of their own making.
Eight weeks have gone by and there Is
little more to write about them. Until those
capped cells open up to release the young.
They seem rather slow In arriving.
In the meantime, the faithful wasps end
lessly pass their feelers over the white wax.
Now and then one detaches himself and
flies out the hole in the screen. He goes. no
doubt, to catch more spiders.
It is interesting to watch the return. The
entrance is not hole In the screening, As
might be thought. but an oblong hole In the
wood. 1t was left there by careless car
penter years ago.
It b Just wasp size. The wings fold
slightly, as the insect alights on the outside.
then down 1t comes.
It Is right at the nest.
The entrance stirs no activity on the part
of the others. Usually there are six or seven.
protecting the capped cells and two are
always to be seen at the top. rear.
Evidently these are the sleepers. # they
take turns, 1t is impossible to know.
~
Watching them has not been the sport
anticipated.
One grows impatient with their lack Of
speed and with their generally churlish
appearance.
They seem 50 ignorant! No doubt that is
the insect way. What they know. they know.
but they wish to know nothing else. Their
little lives are enough for them. No wasp
has ever invented anything. except in the
beginning. These fellows here now are so
lacking in progressiveness that one may
wonder how the frst wasps, million years
ago. ever got up enough interest to invent, II
we may call It. these striking actions Of theirs.
the whole involved building Of the cells and
their care Of the newcomers In the wasp
world. It was quite an invention. in the be-
ginning. but they stopped there and that is
their difference from man. Man, the rascal.
is never satisfied. He has tried all sorts Of
governments, religions. games. ways of being
happy, and he never yet has been satisfied.
He has written new books and sung new
songs, but he grows tired of them all in the
end and longs for more worlds to conquer,
new books to read, new songs to hear. He
shows by all this, that he is not wasp,
nor tiger, with their complete changeless-
ness but creature compelled to 60 on. This
is at, once mans danger and his glory. Even
| the terrible atom bomb was step forward.
We must see to 1t that 1t is not step back
ward One rnisstep. with such toy and the
wasps viii be smarter than we were. Maybe
they are alreadyl