Evening star., 1949-07-08
This. and That
By Charles E. TraceaUell

Wasps building nest in the living room
That is something most persons might not
like. but 1t is really very interesting.
The wasps appeared one day. three Of
them, inside the screen in the east window.
Just how they had got in was something
of mystery
They bothered no one, but went about
their task
Before they were discovered, they had six
cells built OF gray paper material, neatly fas-
tened to the screen frame near the top,
south side.
To all intents and purposes, they were in
the room, but, since they minded their own
business, no one interfered with them
The truth was that no one knew they
were there.
Evidently they had been nest building for
at least a day.
1t was not until that terribly hot afternoon
that curious eye detected them
Then it came with something of a start,
that full-f1edged group Of wasps were at
work actually inside the room!
There were three of them at times four,
but never to date any more.
The three were busy from dawn to dusk
fixing the six little round cells they had
created
So far, the number of cells has not been
increased.
At this point, it should be said that the
window was put down as soon as the nest
was discovered.
No sooner had this been done, than a
wasp appeared inside the window on the
sill
How he did it was at first unknown, but
little looking revealed that he must have
come up through the sash cord runway
ia n ND
out the front door.
In exactly two minutes. he was back at
the nest.
This augmented the urge to discover how
the quartet had got inside the screen, in the
first place.
While insects have the ability to flatten
themselves, they cannot enter unless there
is an opening of some sort.
Hence, search was made for the entrance
Its discovery was no credit to SCREEN
makers. Two strips of wood has been used
across the top. and the second, or inner one,
was about half an inch shorter than the
first.
This left a neat aperture at each end
about quarter of an inch square, two per-
feet entrances for the winged fellows
Or were they fellows?
These wasps build two kinds of nests one
by the queen, and one by the workers
1t was difficult to determine whether there
was queen One was, indeed, slightly
larger than the others.
Probably all are workers, and if so. have
no stingS.
All openings, however slight. where the
window cords went through were stopped
with aluminium paper. This is good ma
terial to have around. It is excellent for
many uses. Surely as stopper against
wasps 1t had an unusual use.
So now the wasp nest goes on apace. It
is neat light gray affair. so far no more
than an inch long. with six cells, in which
the wasps ceaselessly stick their heads turn
ing around and around to get the openings
smoother and smoother
One wonders if this is just trial rum for
the work does not grow at all, just those
six cells, made smoother and smoother. It
| may be that wasps, no less than humans,
often start on constructions they never fin
ish But while they are at it. they are tire
less workers. without thought of rules or
hours. They remind one of certain cele-
brated persons who never seem to tire. as
do more ordinary souls.
1t will be interesting to see what happens
to this nest and whether the cells-and the
wasps-increase with the days.