Buzz off

Awoke to the buzzing of a wasp this morning - opened the window wider, saw it escape and went back to bed only to be awoken again by another wasp, then another and another. They seemed to be leaving at regular intervals like jets from an aircraft carrier.

Inspecting the corner of the room, I found a perfect golf ball-sized nest dangling from the curtain pelmet. There was just the one wasp, coming and going. It must have made the nest over the weekend when we were away. After it flew off once more I removed the nest and closed all the bedroom windows. Sure enough, the wasp was soon back, butting the window pain.

Undeterred, it went to the next open window it could find and I could hear John clearing it out of his room. Apparently the wasp was a queen building its first nest. Left alone the nest would have become progressively larger. Hopefully it will find somewhere else to make its home.

Postscript: The wasp did not find a new home. We left the windows closed for two days but after opening them there was a familiar buzzing on the morning of the third day as the wasp sought to resume her nest making in exactly the same spot. Her resistance was brought to a swift end with a single blow from a rolled up copy of the Sunday Times Rich List.

I hate playing God with our garden wildlife and don't spray the roses (although I do lay down slug pellets to protect the Hostas). But sometimes you have to lend a helping hand. I rescued the frog spawn from the pond and its hungry goldfish and put it in a plastic box full of water. Now I've done something similar with the toad spawn. Hopefully some of the tadpoles will survive this year.