USES OF WASPS AND NESTS 



TO most people the wasp, like the fly 

 and the grasshopper, is a nuisance, 

 a mere pest that the world would well be 

 rid of. Yet the world could not afi'ord to 

 lose its wasps. 



They have their place to fill in the 

 scheme of nature ; and how do we know 

 but that the sudden extermination of the 

 wasp kind might unbalance the 

 whole solar system and disor- 

 ganise the universe generally? 



Certainly the wasp occupies its place in 

 the world with a confidence that justifies 

 the assumption that it has a right to exist, 

 and is even necessary to the maintenance 

 of terrestrial order. 



Nor has man disdained to use it and its 

 nest, though, truth to tell, the principal 

 use made of it in olden time was to cure 



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