No I have not gone mad. It is just that I have been observing the wasps (Vespula vulgaris) in the garden this summer in great detail. Part of this is due to the fact that there is at least one wasp nest in the garden and the other is that I spend a fair bit of time with Tom on my lap in the summer house. (Tom is the stray cat that has adopted us and loves to fall asleep on my lap). I will explain in a moment.

I usually, and have for most of my life, considered wasps as nothing better than a nuisance. Although I have rarely been stung, their zig-zag hovering over sweet food and buzzing around my head is annoying. What have wasps ever done for us?

Now I confess that I am a bit sceptical of the beliefs that some have of the benefits of wildlife in the garden. I do not believe that plants like each other and that companion planting is the way to go. The birds in my garden do not really benefit many of my plantings. But I do plant for wildlife and do not use insecticides (except in an emergency). I rescue butterflies and bees from the greenhouse, I feed the birds, leave long grass, have a patch of nettles. I want my garden to be a haven for wildlife. I feed the soil, not the plants. I love the swallows congregating on the tops of the solar panels (even though they reduce the efficiency of the panels with their little presents) and skimming the pond to drink. I like to see the fox visiting the garden (and I put out food for it). I want to cry when I see a dead bird that has flown into a window or even when the false widow spiders feast on a hoverfly in the greenhouse.

I do all the right things and the blue tits really do peck aphids off the hazel foliage, as well as consume kilos of peanuts and sunflower seeds. I love to see the blackbirds rummaging around fallen leaves and loose mulch, so much that I tolerate them eating every fruit in the garden – they also eat Tom’s cat food. But I have never really seen much advantage in having wasps in the garden.

Until this year. While they are building their nest they need wood pulp and I often see, and hear, them chewing away at garden woodwork, including benches, to make the pulp. And in late summer, when the nest starts to break down and there are fewer larvae to feed, they like to feed on sweet things. There are lots of fallen apples, pulled and pecked from the trees by the blackbirds and then later being eaten by wasps.

But, for most of summer, the wasps need protein and that means they are predators. Most of the time my wasps are enjoying cat food.

Poor Tom. As soon as I put down Tom’s food, the wasps move in. He gets a few mouthfuls and more wasps move in. He has to back off. When he gets his daily tuna or poached chicken (yes he is spoiled) I stand there to make sure he gets the food first.

The wasps cut the food into chunks and take it off to feed the larvae in the nests as the population increases and the nest grows. But they don’t just eat cat food. They are constantly buzzing around all the plants in the garden, especially helichrysum and dahlias and they are looking for aphids. There were some aphids early in the season but no more. In such a dry summer with so much stress on the plants I would expect aphids to be a real problem. But nature has made sure that the aphids were controlled (I will credit the ladybirds and lacewings with some of the help too). Even roses are free from aphids and there were no blackly on the broad beans.

Wasps are ruthless hunters. On one occasion I was sitting with Tom, his head tucked into my hand, snoring away, and there on the table was a wasp with a moth, chewing off its head. And another time there was a small, fluffy feather on the ground and a wasp flew down and grabbed it, wrestled wth it, flipped on its back and struggled and finally decided it was not edible and flew off. A light breeze moved the feather again and another wasp repeated the feather dance.

I will always treat wasps with respect because of the risk of being stung but also, from now on, because they are excellent pest controllers and part of the intricate balance of a healthy garden.

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