126 WASPS AND THEIR WAYS 



is very different from that of a swarm of 

 bees. 



The worker bees remain alive through 

 the winter, and the same hive is densely 

 populated year after year. 



Not so with the wasps. At the approach 

 of cold weather they desert their nests. 



No more combs are built, and even the 

 ' eggs and larv^ already in the cells are 

 abandoned. 



Winter is coming, and with the first 

 severe cold all drones and workers must 

 perish. 



Meantime, all thought of work and of 

 home forgotten, the wasps fly about, often 

 in large numbers, visiting the fall flowers, 

 eating the ripe fruit, getting into houses, 

 making nuisances of themselves, and hav- 

 ing a good time generally. 



The French naturalist Reaumur says that 

 the wasps not only abandon their larv^ at 

 approach of cold weather, but that they 

 drag them out and ruthlessly kill them. 



