They fly slowly and seem to trail long tendrils, with real wasp waists. Some are striped; others blue. I call them mud wasps. Bear calls them dirt dobbies, and others call them dirt daubers. Danny, Dianne's ranch hand, calls them waspers. (He also says that when my roof was leaking my house "fell aflood.") In any case, these are the creatures' little houses on the outside of mine. The female builds one, lays eggs inside and then captures a spider—they prefer black widows but will use any kind—and seals it up in there for the larvae to munch on. They are not aggressive waspers, not like hornets, and I am tempted to leave them there. Whaddya think?
PS
For Wolfen's exciting news, check My Turn to Parent.
Nah. The Black Widows are much more fun to have around.
ReplyDeleteLeave them. Most wasps are intelligent, friendly and co-operative.
ReplyDeleteWhen they enter my house, I politely ask them to leave, open the doors, and they do.
And they help control other insect populations.
Did you ever hear the Findhorn story?
One year, the wasps built their nests right in the eaves of the guests' cabins. So the Findhorn people sprayed them, and killed them.
That summer, the lost their gardens to other insects.
So the following year, when the wasps rebuilt their nests in the same eaves, the people of the Findhorn community (they're Scottish, you know: http://www.findhorn.org/index.php?tz=240)
knelt in meditation, and asked the wasps to relocate. Which they did.
See what I mean?
Live and Let Live, Babe. From one WASP to another.