karma

[piranha]

a few weeks ago, the paramour pointed out that we now have at least 8 wasp nests under the roof overhang at the front of the house. zie wanted to oust them (genocidally). i begged for their survival, being as they don't actually bother us; the nests are too high up for the wasps to be annoyed by us coming and going, and few of them come into the house.

today i rethought that policy briefly, because the grapevine came tumbling down, and i had to place a ladder carefully so as to not disturb any wasps, hammer some nails, and heave the grapevine mass onto them.

maybe they knew who saved their little petiolated buttocks. :) they were somewhat annoyed, but not a one threatened me. and the grapevine is mostly back in place. next year: tie the damn thing down as it grows.

i really prefer them under the roof overhang -- much better than elsewhere -- here's a tiny nest at the bottom of the planter underneath the paramour's window. we also have one inside the tall bird feeder.

Comments

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

That picture is breathtakingly beautiful.

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

That looks so cool, like it's about to turn into an Escher drawing.

I just like saying

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Petiolated buttocks!

Re: I just like saying

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

me too! :)

[djm4]

Anecdotally, I agree with you. We had one large wasps nests pretty much every year in my parents' house, which we'd normally get removed. One year we didn't get round to it, and the wasps more or less left us alone, even when we were picnicking in the garden and eating jam which would normally guarantee attention.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i just rethought my notions of large wasp nest. *shudder*.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

They look like paperwasps, but the nest isn't either of the two shapes we get here (stalactite or upside-down mushroom).

We tend to move the paperwasp nests when they set up in the bushes overhanging the stairs. I got stung several times going up and down them the first year before I even realised what it was. Fortunately, these wasp stings don't hurt for all that long.

[lorres.livejournal.com]

I've in general left wasps alone and they do the same for me. I've had more curious ones crawl over me for minutes at a time. One day I found three or four inside on a window screen, bent the screen open a little crack and drew a line for them to follow to the crack with my finger, just to see what they'd do. Every one of them followed my little visual path to the crack. They were watching.

My only near bad incidents were the curious ones that were investigating the clothes in my closet. This would be a very bad thing if I tried to put the clothes on, so I have removed a few nests in the past, but it was for our mutual safety.

Oh, and I think they may have recognized you as the one who saved their petiolated little buttocks. They're highly visually oriented. Petiolated little buttocks. hee hee