Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Is it really summer?

It looks like summer- lush vegetation and flowers blooming (and my vegetable garden being choked by weeds). It sort of feels like summer save for the deliciously cool mornings and evenings with little or no humidity. I look up at the clear blue sky and I keep thinking I've fallen into September already.

All the standard hallmarks of summer are present- no school, charcoal grills, fireworks, days at the beach and picking berries but where are my friendly neighborhood wasps?

Wasps? I know. I know. Most people have a visceral reaction to these winged creatures of agony but I have rather a soft spot for them. Instead of running for the nearest insecticide when they begin building a nest, I watch them completely transfixed. If you're careful and gain their trust, they'll let you get fairly close to observe their rhythms. I guess you can call me the Wasp Whisperer.

Unfortunately, my summer has been waspless. Is it the cool weather (this morning was a nippy 53 degrees) that has tricked them into hibernation? Or is it something more ominous? I rather miss my wasp breaks during the day.

1 comment:

Knitting Mama said...

Indeed there is probably something more ominous occurring to your friendly predatory insect friends from the Order Hymenoptera ....perhaps the wasp larva have been infected with a bacteria significantly culling their numbers. They are listed as critically endangered. There is a book you may be interested in reading called "The Man Who Loved Wasps" By Howard Ensign Evans, Edward O. Wilson, Mary Alice Evans