By Their Assistance, I Am But Little
Troubled With Flies.
All my family are so accustomed to their strong
buzzing, that no one takes any notice of them; and though they are
fierce and vindictive, yet kindness and hospitality has made them
useful and harmless.
We have a great variety of wasps; most of them build their nests in
mud, which they fix against the shingles of our roofs, as nigh the
pitch as they can. These aggregates represent nothing, at first
view, but coarse and irregular lumps, but if you break them, you
will observe, that the inside of them contains a great number of
oblong cells, in which they deposit their eggs, and in which they
bury themselves in the fall of the year. Thus immured they securely
pass through the severity of that season, and on the return of the
sun are enabled to perforate their cells, and to open themselves a
passage from these recesses into the sunshine. The yellow wasps,
which build under ground, in our meadows, are much more to be
dreaded, for when the mower unwittingly passes his scythe over their
holes they immediately sally forth with a fury and velocity superior
even to the strength of man. They make the boldest fly, and the only
remedy is to lie down and cover our heads with hay, for it is only
at the head they aim their blows; nor is there any possibility of
finishing that part of the work until, by means of fire and
brimstone, they are all silenced.
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