24 A. E. GIBBS — THE WA.SF INFESTATION OF 1893. 



nests during the summer. His method was to place a piece of 

 cyanide of potassium about the size of a walnut into the hole, and 

 then a little water. It should be done twice occasionally, because 

 the cyanide does not always kill the grubs, and then they come out 

 afterwards. A wasp never comes out again. Mr. Sainsbuiy, next 

 door, had two nests in a shed. Mr. W. E. Moore, of Westfield, 

 had one built on a tree. The specimen is in the Public Library 

 now. Much injury was done to wall -fruit. The tom-tits began 

 eating the fruit and the wasps finished it off." 



Elstree. — Mr. W. J. Belderson says : " The antiquated methods 

 of pouring tar into the hole and firing it, and of making a ' devil ' 

 with gunpowder (gunpowder damped, put in the mouth of the hole 

 and fired, and a clot of dirt placed' over it), have been superseded by 

 a more effectual means. A table -spoonful of cyanide of potassium 

 put into the hole completely destroys every wasp that comes near 

 it, and there is no danger fi'om the wasps. I destroyed one nest 

 (of many) last year, a strong one. 1 put in the chemical, and 

 stood for about five minutes watching the wasps. They kept 

 coming to the nest in swarms. After that time Mr. Beckett, 

 the head gardener at Aldenham House, suggested that we should 

 count them. He timed while two of us counted, and in two 

 minutes 270 entered the nest. The wasps flew to the hole, and 

 then, seeing their dead companions, hovered around, but after a 

 second made a dart into the hole, and not one came out again. 

 After an hour had elapsed we dug them out to destroy the comb, 

 and had about a pint of wasps, all dead. At a grocer's shop in 

 the neighbourhood a two-cwt. bag of sugar was warehoused 

 amongst others. Wasps got iu, and when the bag was weighed 

 there were barely six stones left, including dead wasps." 



Barnet. — The following description of an encounter between a 

 wasp and a bee is written by Mr. Frank F. Shemff, of Brightside, 

 Eavenscroft Park, High Bamet : — " I witnessed last autumn a 

 fierce encounter between a wasp and a bee. I was attracted to 

 a flower-bed by what I presumed to be the noise and turmoil of a 

 humble-bee in the web of a spider, but which proved to be a savage 

 attack upon a honey-bee by a hungry wasp. I am inclined to 

 believe that the bee was surprised by the wasp on a neighbouring 

 flower, and that robbery, instigated by the bee's load of honey, was 

 the inciting cause. The rapid movements of the combatants as 

 they tumbled over one another amid the flowers rendered it difficult 

 at first to distinguish bee from wasp. But as the fight proceeded, 

 and the fury of the fray gradually subsided, I could see the two 

 insects in deadly embrace struggling to bring their stings into play. 

 The bee, encumbered by its honey, to which it still clung with 

 fatal tenacity, was evidently at a disadvantage, and endeavoured 

 in vain to escape from the relentless clutch of its assailant. The 

 wasp, on the other hand, holding its antagonist finnly between its 

 fore-legs, brought its sting into action and drove it repeatedly into 

 the body of its victim. At this period I interfered and tried to 

 drive away the victor, but it returned again and again to the spot, 



