460 



MY GARDEN. 



The Common Wasp (Vespa vulgare, fig. 1019, tf) constantly has its 

 nest in our garden. In the year 1869 some epidemic disease appeared 

 to attack them, which greatly reduced their numbers. Wasps are upon 

 the whole very destructive in gardens, as they eat the thin-skinned 

 apples, the finer pears, and the wall fruit, together with the plums 



and grapes. They are 

 besides annoying and 

 spiteful, as I have been 

 deliberately stung by a 

 / / v V wasp without the least 



FIG. 1019. a, Common Wasp ; d, e,f, sting of ditto, b, Gnat ; 

 c, mouth of ditto. 



provocation upon my 

 part : for these reasons 

 we destroy wasps by 

 catching the large fe- 

 males, which appear in 

 early spring. When the 

 nests are discovered, in 

 July and August, they are usuajly destroyed by making a squib of 

 sulphur and gunpowder, which is introduced into the entrance of the 

 nests ; after which the nest, which is then full of grubs, may be 

 dug out, and the grubs given to the poultry or be used as bait for 

 fish. Tar poured into the entrance-hole is destructive to a whole 

 colony, as no wasp can enter or emerge without being caught by this 

 substance. Wasps may also be trapped by placing sugar and water in 

 a bottle ; being attracted by the sugar, they enter the bottle, but can- 

 not escape from it. W'asps may be poisoned by arsenic and sugar, 

 but pets are liable to be killed as well as wasps, and therefore this 

 poison had better be avoided. Wasps are not altogether an unmitigated 

 evil in a garden, as they act as scavengers to remove decaying animal 

 matter, and they also destroy aphides. The nest of the wasp is very 

 curious, being constructed of paper made by the creatures frorp the 

 fibre of trees. It consists of a series of horizontal groups of hexagonal 

 paper cells, arranged in tiers one cell thick, with the mouth down- 

 wards and one tier above another. The nest of the wasp therefore 



