92 NATURAL HISTORY 



In October, 1788, 1 took some workers, some males and some females, 

 and enclosed some of each in the following places : in a box under 

 ground, so deep as not to be affected by the frost ; in a thick wooden 

 water pipe, which was closed at each end and left above ground ; and 

 in a hole in the middle of a brick wall, the wall being built up again. 

 About the beginning of May, 1789, those places were opened, but the 

 wasps were all dead ; from which I should suspect that very few survive 

 the winter. 



Loose Notes. 



Wasps bear being removed from their first place of destination, taking 

 kindly to a new place of abode, and pursue their labours. I have 

 moved a hive out of the ground to a considerable distance, placed it 

 under a glass shade, and they have continued their works just the same 

 as before. Hence we must imagine they are a manageable set of 

 creatures, and, I think, much more so than bees ; but they differ very 

 much from bees in the advantage to man arising from cultivating them. 

 They are extremely destructive in their labours, and no advantage arises 

 from those labours ; while the bee is perfectly inoffensive in its labours, 

 and is advantageous in their result. If deprived of their queen, the 

 labourers still go on with the work ; if the hive should be very much 

 injured they will repair it, and they will even increase it in size. What- 

 ever eggs may be laid, they are hatched, and the maggots are fed, and 

 go through all their stages. 



As the wasp commonly builds her hive under ground, and as she is 

 obliged to excavate the place lower and lower, the cavity is at first 

 commonly of a rounded figure, but it becomes more and more oblong as 

 it descends. However, the rounded end is still rounded off, which 

 makes the last tier or platform narrower than those above ; and these 

 they would widen in the end, if the season for leaving off did not pre- 

 vent them. But where they are not obliged to mine, and where the 

 hollow is of equal size, they make each platform of the width of the 

 cavity. This I saw in a bee-hive, as also in the hollow of a tree, where 

 wasps had built. 



The best mode of killing the inmates of a wasp's nest, is to dig a hole 

 by the side of it lower than itself. If you come upon the nest, have a 

 piece of glass and clap on the hole ; then go on, and when below it, 

 make an opening up to the nest. When this is done, make a kind of 

 vault from this hole sufficient to put a match in, made of wetted gun- 

 powder, and set fire to it, and by stopping the opening of this vault, 

 the whole of the smoke will ascend round the nest. Immediately stop 

 up every crevice to confine the air as much as possible. 



