TO DESTKOY. 271 



been taken to apply the tar when most of the Wasps are 

 withm, there may be temporary trouble from the excluded 

 Wasps forming an attempt at a settlement by making paper 

 in irregular patches amongst the grass round the entrance to 

 the nest. This requires attention, lest accidents should result 

 from it being stepped into at unawares. 



The following notes were given me by Mr. W. Gardner, then 

 of Bekesbourne, Kent, relatively to method of taking about 

 a hundred and ninety nests : — 



" I think about half were taken, or supposed to be completely 

 destroyed, by cyanide of potassium, mixed in the proportion 

 of two ounces of cyanide to a pint of water ; the others were 

 destroyed by pouring in gas-tar, or a sulphur mixture, as they 

 used to do formerly. My old gardener always used pieces of 

 Elder tree from which he had abstracted the pith, and they 

 were filled with a proper admixture of brimstone, &c., but I 

 have forgotten the proportion. They went off like a squib. 



" My man who used the cyanide said it was wonderful to 

 see the instantaneous effect it had on the Wasps, and we 

 found that the best way was to give them some ; the next day 

 to catch the stragglers that had stayed out during the warm 

 nights, and then dig them out, and crush all the hatching and 

 unhatched larvae. Indeed, even when using the tar, digging 

 out is requisite to make sure of destroying them. 



" I remember one case I had where the hole ran upwards, 

 so I stopped the entrance, and then got a pointed iron rod, 

 six or seven feet long, on which I put a piece of gas-pipe, 

 about half the length or less, and then running the rod care- 

 fully into the ground I soon found when I had come upon the 

 nest. I then drew out the rod, and poured in a quantity of 

 gas-tar, which effectively did its work. 



" The cyanide process is very simple. We dip a piece of 

 cotton- wool in the mixture and put it upon a pointed stick, 

 and push it pretty well into the hole ; of course it needs 

 to be in the hands of a trustworthy person, being such a 

 violent jwison." 



The above observations of numbers and treatment of Wasps' 

 nests were taken from an area of somewhat less than six 

 hundred acres of ground, thus giving an average of some- 

 where about one Wasps' nest to every three acres. 



From Canon Court, Wateringbury, Kent, Mr. Edw. Goodwin, 

 after mentioning the great strength (in number of Wasps) and 

 also the unusually large average size of the nests, added : — 

 " We made a great onslaught on them in June, most people 

 using cyanide of potassium, which I have myself used success- 

 fully for years." 



From Coosenwartha, Scorrier (Cornwall), the following ob- 



