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It's getting to that time of year when wasp behaviour changes. And as far as most people are concerned, it's a change for the worse. Since wasps don't have that many friends to start with, this is a yet further serious decline in their reputation

I’m rather hoping that 2011 will be a good year for wasps. Unfortunately, my definition of a good year is sometimes at odds with other people’s. For me, a good year is seeing wasps by the bucket load.There is more to this than a perverse I

Wasps love feeding on soft, juicy fruit. They can break through the skins of grapes, peaches and plums, and quickly nibble out sizeable cavities, but fruit with tougher skins such as apples and pears must first be broken open by pecking birds before

Over the next few weeks, you may find a large wasp on the plot, which will turn out to be a queen. Having overwintered, queen wasps look for a place to start a brood, and may well decide that your shed (or in my case, compost heap), would make a

2007 will be remembered as a very good year for wasps. But before people start complaining about their vicious stings and bad tempers, I must point out that wasps are actually our friends. After birds and spiders, they are the most important insect

more than his fair share of the frolicking.A dead leaf was twitching on the water’s surface, and gently peeling it up, expecting to see an animated amphibian beneath, revealed, instead, a queen wasp.Whether she had fallen from the ivy-clad fence nearby

then succumb to the dreaded brown rot. (The signs of brown rot are raised beige spots, usually in neat concentric rings and a speedy, brown rotting of the flesh.)This year the birds and the wasps have eaten everything in sight. The peaches ('Avalon') cropped

Pears ripening on the tree are damaged by wasps excavating holes into the soft, juicy flesh. The holes are initially created by hungry birds, then wasps are attracted by the juice and move in.Pears that are still on the tree display hollowed out

.I was also surprised to see that the wasp nest, two plots down, was still abuzz. At the end of the season, wasp colonies normally rather fizzle out. There is usually a little bit of activity from the last remaining workers as the new queens and males

An insect of the order Hymenoptera. They're considered a pest in the summer when they feed on ripe fruit.