Predatory wasp

great shot

Ughh go away!

Great photo!

I'm always somewhat dismayed by "wasp traps" that one can buy that are intended to kill wasps. Considering what a great job wasps do in keeping pesty insect numbers down, they should be encouraged!

okay, one wouln't want a lot of them at one's picnic or barbie, but one can distract them without killing them. The old remedy used to be to put a saucer of jam some distance away, then put water over it; the jam would attract the wasps, the water would drown them. I'd tend to go for that minus the water - give the wasps their own picnic at a safe distance from mine.

lol nearly forgot - great pic! did you have to go and fetch your camera or do you keep it handy for just-in-case? either way it was considerate of the wasp to wait for you! *g*

We went to a social occasion at an airfield Naafi outdoor eating area last year. People eating outside at picnic tables. On each table was beer in doctored plastic bottles and lots of visiting wasps.....alas they love beer!!!. The occasion would have been no social occasion without the traps. Same at RHS Hyde Hall last year.....no one outside eating due to wasps. One year in our garden there was glut of hoverflies and the wasps in our roof never bothered us. They were too busy beheading hoverflies and feeding them to their young. Not very nice really.

ah, right, thousands of people at an event is a bit different in scale from family-friends barbie - bit difficult to find somewhewre "a little way away! from an airfield!

*s* nature often isn't very nice - necessary checks and balances can get a bit gory when looked at closely!

The Naafi was replanked recently. Some of the damage was wasps processing the wooden cladding on the naafi, to make nests in the bigger spaces behind it!!! The airfield entertained huge numbers of swifts and swallows this year at one point. Until a hawk appeared with jesses trailing......too many for a good flying day..... so the local hawk man visited. Flying ant time I think. We were happy to think there are still so many still visiting us here in Essex Fran.

Oh, I'm sitting here slowly going green with envy. Don't get many high-fliers in the middle of a concrete desert - well, there might be some, I've heard of kestrels nesting on high-rise windowsills, but not usually visiable.

*s* I can still remember years ago, on a car journey, we stopped at a layby and I spent about twenty minutes just watchng a kestrel hovering - then stooping and climbing back up and hovering again. I didn't half give me a stiff neck but oh! no wonder the old name for kestrel was "windhover"

birds in quantity can be nice to see, but not where aircraft are coming and going! I have an old documentary about Stanstead Airport, the edges are nature reserves but of course birds ... I'll have to watch it again to see how they keep the birds out of the way

At N Weald airfield they go out with a loudspeaker broadcasting crow distress calls. All those guys disapear for while. We were very surprised to see the hawk being flown. It was amazing how those birds just vanished. My sister -in-law was quite upset. She was so thrilled to see all those swifts and swallows darting about. I should think the in air insect eaters were tanking up to go back to Africa. Flying ant time is handy for that process. I suppose it's all these kinds of things that disadvantage many creatures. The crows are doing well though!!!