It’s nice to see a paper wasp doing something that contributes to the greater good, like pollinating a milkweed plant. – Chris Helzer, The Prairie Ecologist blog

Let us give nature a chance, she knows her business better than we do. – Michel de Montaigne, French philosopher (1533-1592)

Right there in the grocery produce section was Mother Goose. She was dressed in a frilly long dress and her sweet, ruffled apron. She said she had been to a little “to do.” She gave me a big hug then drew back and asked, “Why don’t you write something about wasps?” She hiked her dress to the knee and said, “Look at that!” Goodness, there was a large area flaming red and swollen. Edwina, that is Mother Goose, had been viciously attacked by wasps. How rude.

At the Prairie house I had been wrestling with my wasps. I tried wasp poison, guaranteed to kill and watched as wasps dropped from the porch ceiling. I grabbed a broom and knocked down the wasp nests only to find wasps rebuilding the next day. I repeated with the same poison for the next few days, but they were back building again, some in the previous places and others in new corners. Again, I took the end of a broom and swatted at the nest. The nests attach by what looks like not much more than a thread, but it hangs on.   

I dislike using wasp spray. I must be careful with my tree frog hotel nearby. Wilhelmina, the cat, wanders in those areas, and I’m spraying poison possibly on myself, so there must be another way. Since the wasps have not tried to attack me, I wondered if wasps are beneficial in some way?

A quick wasps search led to the National Wildlife Federation “wasps are incredibly important for the world’s economy and ecosystems…without them, the planet would be pest-ridden to biblical proportions, with much-reduced biodiversity. We tolerate bees, including their stings, because they pollinate, and the public understands that.”

Have you ever had a belief system then one day you learn something, and you think maybe you’re on the wrong side? David Mizejewski with the NWF says, “It’s literally about staying out of their way. The best way to ensure getting stung by a wasp is to swat at it. These animals don’t want to sting you. If you leave them alone, they won’t. It’s pretty simple.”

According to the NWF only 1.5 percent of wasp species are likely to sting people if provoked. All of them are social species such as paper wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets that defend communal nests. Most wasps are solitary.

After feeling bad about wasps, I searched “natural ways to remove wasps,” like essential oils spray, sugar water in a plastic bottle. Once the wasp enters, move the bottle to another area. There are smells wasps resist: peppermint, spearmint, basil, eucalyptus, cloves, geranium, thyme, citronella, bay leaves, vinegar, cinnamon, coffee grounds, and sliced cucumber. Amazon sells decoy nests that look like Japanese lanterns. The wasps will think another colony has established itself and move on. I don’t know how or where a wasp tangled with Mother Goose, but I sure hope it doesn’t happen again both for Edwina and the wasps.      

Shannon Bardwell is a writer living quietly in the Prairie. Email reaches her at [email protected].

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