CUNNING OF THE WASP. 299 



that the wasps had obtained an outlet, and were joyfully 

 amusing themselves, as if in ridicule of our puny efforts. 

 The only certain method of destroying a wasps' nest, is by sul- 

 phur ; but the difficulty of arriving at it, is sometimes great, 

 on account of the depth at which it is built in the ground, 

 which baffles the patience of the most inveterate wasp hater, a 

 character which generally belongs to all keepers of bees. 



The provident plan of plastering the hive to the bench or 

 pedestal on which it is placed, is an excellent guarantee 

 against the depredations of the wasp ; for they, who have 

 paid a strict attention to the motions of that insect, must 

 have frequently perceived, that when the wasp has been 

 repulsed from the entrance of the hive, by the boldness and 

 vigilance of the bees, he takes a survey of all the other parts 

 of the hive, particularly the back part, and so keen is his 

 eyesight, that he will immediately discern the slightest 

 crevice, through which he can obtrude his body into the 

 hive, and if one has discovered it, there will soon be a hundred 

 to follow his example. 



We are far from recommending the practice adhered to 

 by many keepers of bees, of hanging bottles filled with some 

 saccharine liquid in the immediate vicinity of the hives ; for 

 although a few wasps may be destroyed by it, yet they act 

 rather as objects of invitation to the robbers, and undoubtedly 

 entice a greater number into the neighbourhood of the apiary, 

 than would perhaps otherwise have approached it. Inde- 

 pendently of this disadvantage, the bees themselves are 

 most greedily disposed to partake of any saccharine fluid 

 within their reach ; and hostile as the wasp and the bee 

 may be towards each other, when the former invades the 

 territory of the latter, yet we have often seen them partaking 

 in social fellowship of any sweets, which chance may have 

 thrown in their way. A bee will visit a bottle of sugar and 

 water as greedily as a wasp, and that which will drown a 

 wasp, will drown a bee; it therefore scarcely amounts to a 

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