"There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher."
--Victor Hugo--
---------------------------------------------------------------
One of the biggest differences between the city house and the country house is the presence of paper wasps, yellow jackets, ground wasps, hornets, and the like.
At the country house, if you leave a car parked outside for a few days, every door seam, trunk lid, hood seam, wheel well, gas cap cover, will be full of yellow jacket nests. You quickly learn to be very careful opening things.
Every high house eave corner will at some time or another acquire a huge round hornet's nest.
At some point every summer you are guaranteed to step on a ground digger yellow jacket nest. They love lawns. Teleportation is a quickly learned skill.
Anything left outside that has a sheltered spot, a small hole, a covered area, like deck chairs or empty flower pots, will gather irritable inhabitants.
It's a serious problem.
Today I was sitting on a chair on the patio at the city house, and through painfully-acquired habit I checked the chair for wasps flying around it before sitting, and I was careful not to let my fingers curl around to the underside of the armrests. When I realized what I was doing, I realized that I haven't seen a single wasp here.
Not one.
Rather than being pleased, I'm worried.
Why no wasps?
.
1 comment:
Less tasty tasty wood?
Post a Comment