132 WASPS. 



above address, are in reply to an enquiry of my own, whether the great 

 complaints regarding Wasp presence were over-stated, and show the 

 prevalence of the pest in that as in many other localities. Mr. Sutton 

 wrote me : — " There is no doubt whatever as to the ' Wasp plague ' 

 having been most serious, fruit having been destroyed wholesale, and 

 people being in fear of their lives from the invasions of their houses by 

 these pests. So numerous have they been at our own table, that it 

 was difficult to take food on our fork without putting a Wasp in the 

 mouth." 



Herts. — St Albans, Torrington House. Although in my own 

 house I believe we were much less plagued than in many other places, 

 I can bear witness to the Wasps being exceedingly troublesome, and 

 at mealtimes a dextrous well-aimed pat with the back of a spoon, 

 which would send the pest down without escape into the syrup, or 

 whatever it might be, on which it was trying to maraud, was much too 

 often required. Thus the Wasp is incapacitated for a minute, and 

 may be picked out and destroyed. A neighbour, however, was in 

 some danger from a sting of a Wasp, given inside the throat whilst 

 being swallowed in some beer. 



In the town, the Wasps were excessively troublesome. At the 

 Misses Eandall's, one of the chief stationer's shops, the Wasps flocked 

 in in such numbers, that for comfort of the customers the doors were 

 obliged to be kept as much shut as could be managed. 



Mr. Strofton, of Chequer Street, St. Albans, one of the leading 

 grocers of the town, informed me that he had not known the Wasps so 

 troublesome for many years as they had been in the past season. They 

 swarmed in at the door in vast numbers, and got into the sugar 

 drawers, and carried it off in quantities, amounting altogether to some 

 pounds. The jam-pots also were ravaged at where open to attack, and 

 often cleared out some inches down. By way of trying an experiment 

 as to extent of plundering, Mr. Strofton took the cover off a 2 lb. pot 

 of jam, and left it exposed, and by the following night the whole con- 

 tents had been removed. The Wasps had not given much annoyance 

 by stinging, neither had they done any observable amount of good as 

 to clearing away flies. 



They appeared to have as good knowledge and memory in finding 

 their way to the sugar drawer as in finding their way back to the nest, 

 for whilst I was enquiring as to their habits, a Wasp flew in at the 

 door, went behind the counter, and, before I could move a few steps to 

 watch operations, had made its way into a sugar drawer. 



Mr. Strofton informed me that the method of trapping he found 

 answer best, was to partly fill rather small bottles, such as soda water 

 bottles, with a mixture of beer and sugar boiled together, thus he had 

 caught quarts of the plunderers. — Ed. 



