The vespiary

The crevices in the crumbling mortar of our old stone walls make it possible for a wasp queen to penetrate and start a nest that will swell to thousands.  I realised this process had begun  back in April when I noticed  dozens of workers arrowing in and disappearing into a crack beside the kitchen window of our holiday cottage. Nothing to be done about it;  even a professional pest destroyer couldn't get access to the queen deep inside the fabric of the wall where the worker wasps were feeding the larvae of the next generation.

I wrote to everyone who was booked to stay in the cottage (not that many given the circumstances  of summer 2020) prior to their arrival, informing them of the wasp presence and advising them they could reach the front door by walking around the back of the building if they wanted to avoid the flight path. I was concerned lest anyone had a serious  phobia or allergy. To my relief nobody demurred and one person actually said she has a positive attitude to wasps. To my knowledge, no one got stung.

Now in late October aerial activity has declined but not ceased. I've learnt that the queen will be laying fertile eggs at this stage, daughters and sons who will fly away and mate. The males will perish but the mated females will hibernate and become next year's queens. Her job done, the old queen will die and the nest will not be re-used. (That's a relief!)

I've also learnt that a cold winter is better for the hibernating 'princesses' than a mild one. If it's cold they will remain dormant until spring but if there are warm spells they may wake and failing to find food, die of starvation.

We've all learnt the value of bees but wasps perform a vital role in the environment too. They kill enormous numbers of insect pests that damage plants and without them our food crops would be severely compromised.

A vespiary is the wasp equivalent of an apiary.