Ruining the last days of summer or gardener’s friend?

The only person I’ve ever come across who has openly admitted to liking wasps is naturalist Chris Packham. When asked by a young person, “What are wasps for?”, he started his reply by saying – ‘I’m a great fan of wasps. I have a nest of them in my stables and they’re very happy; I’m very happy.’

However, anyone who has ever attempted to enjoy a cream tea, in the garden, on a sunny late summer afternoon, will understand why I simply can’t bring myself to agree with him. The minute you uncover that jam to put on your scone, be it in the Cornish or Devon way, it doesn’t matter, you are going to be plagued by wasps. Not just by one, but by many. No amount of flailing of arms, screaming, or swatting madly is going to deter those stripy little fiends from Hell from sinking their jaws into your strawberry conserve and ruining your day.

Meanwhile the bees, who we all love, of course, are going about their business concentrating their efforts on gathering nectar from the flowers in your garden, unconcerned by the open warfare, between wasp and human, going on behind them. It’s difficult not take it all personally. If bees can behave nicely, why can’t wasps? After all they are described as ‘social’ insects. Although what’s social about attacking and stinging people and building nests in the most inconvenient of places, like your shed or in the loft, I don’t know.

But the truth is that wasps are just being wasps and, contrary to what we might think, they do a lot of good in the garden. For a start, even though their bodies are smoother than the hairy bees, they carry out a useful amount of pollination. As insect predators, wasps spend their summer’s preying on the aphids, flies, caterpillars and other creepy crawlies that would otherwise be chomping their way through your plants.

Despite their reputation, wasps are not unduly aggressive. However if you’re swatting at them, or trying to destroy their beautifully intricate nests that they’ve spent a good deal of time constructing, they are going to interpret your actions as antagonistic.  And, as we all know, they will defend themselves, working together to attack the enemy. It’s all going to end in tears.

So why are they honing in on our sweet treats? The reason is that wasp larvae convert the protein from the insects they’re fed into a sweet liquid which the worker wasps drink. In late summer, when the larvae have fully grown, the adult wasps need to search out alternative sugary substances for fuel. And your cream tea fits the bill very well indeed.

If they could, perhaps wasps might well ask what humans are for. Interesting thought. What biological purpose do we serve on planet Earth? Fortunately, wasps aren’t known for their philosophical thinking, so we don’t, for now, need to come up with an answer. Just as well, as I can’t think of one, for the moment.