Month of the Wasps

  It seems to be "Month of the Wasps" here on the Bayou.  First, there were the red paper wasps that built their nest in the potted cedar tree.  This tree was overgrown with the jasmine causing me to snip, tug, hoist and generally be hugging the tree for about an hour.  Ordinarily, these wasps are rather foul tempered critters and will sting you at the drop of a hat.  For some reason, they felt sorry for the old lady trying to do a bit of yard work and I received nary a sting. 

  Then, Mark and I came across a yellow jacket nest.  These wasps, too, have nasty tempers and will attack just for the sake of being ornery.  The nest was huge and I was thankful that we were able to kill the wasps before anyone haphazardly stumbled upon the nest.  Again, nary a sting was received.

  Yesterday, we decided to rip up the small deck.  Some of the boards were getting a tad rotten so instead of repairing, we removed it.  While I was stacking boards, Mark called my attention to yet another nest.  This time it was a mud nest that had been accidentally knocked loose.  My first reaction was that this was some sort of mud dauber's nest (which are a type of wasp) but it looked quite different than any I have ever seen.  I had to do a bit of research and I am still not sure exactly what type of wasp made the nest.  The nearest thing seems to be a wasp called a spider wasp.  It is a type of mud dauber that mainly preys upon spiders.  Well, that could be a good thing since we do seem to have a lot of brown widow and black widow spiders about the place.  I figure that we could use all the help we can get in thinning those buggers out of the area!  Again, no stings but these are rather docile wasps unlike their cousins.

  It does seem as though we have more wasps, bees and generally just more insects than usual this summer.  Perhaps our lack of winters, as of late, accounts for this change.  As far as the wasps go, it was definitely a happy thought that we have avoided stings.