Queen Wasps

Hi all,
Sorry I haven't been about for a bit, but I have been busy woodturning and having some teeth pulled out. Other than drawing designs for my wooden pieces, I haven't had much time for any other sort of art. Hopefully, that's all about to change and I hope to show you some art work in few days time.

Besides that, there are two other reasons for this post. Firstly, to let you know that one of my books,

will be free to download from amazon, until and including Friday 19th on April. Just click on the books tab at the top of the page, then click on the book's cover to go straight to amazon for the free download.

Secondly, I would like to know if anybody else has noticed the horrific number of queen wasps that have been flying around for the past few weeks. Each spring I would average on see, but not always managing to kill, perhaps half a dozen queen wasps. However, this year my wife and I have dispatched well over 100 queen wasps. These are the ones that were foolish enough to have a shufty at the inside of our conservatory or came into our kitchen when we opened the windows. Whilst in the garden or out and about I have seen hundreds more.

So what, you may be saying. Well if I tell you that every one of those wasps will go on to make a nest and have thousands of off spring you might just realise that we are in for a very rough summer. Do not expect to have a nice picnic or a quiet pint in the garden of the pub any time after the end of July.

The facts are that queen wasps, unlike their offspring, manage to make it through the winter. They pop out once the weather warms up in April or May and go about finding a nice place to make a nest. Inside somebody's loft is a favourite. Once they have found their dream des res, they lay thousands of eggs which are incubated and turn into the nasty little wasps that we all enjoy through the summer. They usually start making their presence felt by Mid July and will increase in number until they start to decline in October.

So please be warned and do yourself a favour. If you see a queen wasp, don't let it out of the window, bash the blighter with a rolled up newspaper, And if you fancy a gamble, buy some shares in a company that sells wasp nest killer products because I predict that they will make a killing this year.

Oh and by the way, take no notice of those who say that if you kill a wasp its mates will smell it and come and get you. It is just complete rubbish, just another one of those silly myths that do the rounds like, "you are never more than 10 feet from a rat."