Where have all the wasps gone? Seems wasps are fewer in number this summer. Even the BBC are asking about this. I’ll tell you where they have gone – they are having their summer holiday in our house.
Here at The Quirky Museum we have some Juliet balconies, they were added in the Victorian era and we think they look rather snazzy, especially in bright red. The bright red might not be an authentic Victorian colour but somehow or other it seems to work for us.
It also seems to work for Bedfordshire’s wasp population as I discovered while recently painting the balconies. The wasps, pesky flying poison-laden darts, were buzzing around underneath one of the ground floor balconies as I was daubing on the Hammerite. Seeing as how I have only just recovered from my last sting, I dosed the area with some wasp powder. This sent them into a spin and they didn’t quite know who or what to sting. Instead they were all a bit disorientated, not sure how to get in and out of whatever nest was lurking inside the house.
In terms of where the nest was, I had a good look around in the cellar and concluded it was between the cellar ceiling and the floor above. Totally inaccessible for me, thankfully.
I am sure the wasps are involved in their own form of house maintenance in getting it ready for the season ahead (so we have that in common) or simply vacating one cosy home and for another elsewhere (‘elsewhere’ being elsewhere in the Quirky Museum, no doubt).
I suppose the wasps are a bit like me. They like old houses with interesting bricks and nooks and crannies. They like their routines and the idea of preparing for the next season in life. Well I’m not sure what their routine is, but for me I like making sure everything is in order for the winter ahead.
For now we have decided to resist asking our friendly wasp person (a very pleasant middle age lady called Jo) to attend with her array of scary stuff, although we simply don’t know if it is a large or small nest lurking in there. Jo has already been here once this year to remove a huge nest from the loft (which I only check once a year or so).
So I’ve spruced up the Victorian windows and made sure they are all okay for the winter ahead. This has included putting some ‘glass glue’ on some cracks – the old Victorian glass is paper thin in places and we have a few cracked panes. You might ask why we put up with the old glass? It works because of the imperfections and from outside it is more difficult to see in owing to the irregular reflections. Besides, it all adds to the charm, if not the insulation performance of the house (hence secondary glazing inside).
I still need to do some more work in getting the house ready for winter. When I say “I need to….” what is really meant is someone else will need to check over the roof. Also to remove an old TV aerial which is currently acting as a pigeon rest so they can drop their droppings in a somewhat inconvenient place. And not forgetting putting a cowl over the chimneys in case the pigeons decide to once again rest their weary wings there, fall asleep and tumble down inside the chimney.
This is all proof that it is a never ending tale of house maintenance here at the Quirky Museum.
And finally, at least the Beeb can now know the answer to Where have all the wasps gone?