OK, so you can call me a weirdo if you like or a sap or whatever, but I got giddy over my insects this morning.
For those of you who don’t know, I have a decent sized colony of red Paper Wasps living on the balcony at my apartment. Now, this isn’t generally something to get excited about. In fact, for most of my life, I’ve been pretty freaked out by wasps and other flying, stinging instincts, this owing itself to being stung many times as a child in the same sitting. I mean, I generally would freak out if a wasp was anywhere near me.
For a while I had a colony near the balcony (these were classic Texas red wasps, big red-bodied, red-winged ones) and they got too aggressive so I sprayed them out. After the spray went down, a lot of the colony members were coming back, getting the poison and dying slowly…Now I know I’m a big bad zealot of Khintana and all, but perhaps in her wisdom (and with a little help of my girlfriend Cass) she decided it was time I learned a lesson about harmony with the bugs and whatnot. I must admit that it actually gave me a choke to see those wasps coming back only to be poisoned and watching them die, and it’s the gods’ truth that I felt damn bad about it after, to the point of trying to shoo them away from going back.
About a week later another colony (red with black wings) moved in and started building a nest actually on the balcony, this time in the upper corner near one of the support beams. Now this wasn’t going to fly folks (no pun intended) and my instant urge was to knock that nest down and the two wasps there and be done with it. I suppose it was the fact that I had so viciously annihilated the other colony and watched them die slow that got me here, so I decided to let this colony be for a bit and see how they behaved. It wasn’t long after that they started multiplying…just flying in from everywhere to join up and whatnot, and I noticed that none of them ever really came near me. Also, the bugs seemed extremely laid-back for flying insects: most of the time they barely seemed to work, just hanging about the nest or sitting still on the pole nearby. For a while there my fear still had the best of me and I would simply not go out on my balcony, but I wouldn’t kill them either.
By two weeks later the colony had jumped to 26 wasps who were there most of the day. Several would hang about building the nest while the others would sit simply on the pole as if in conversation. At night all of them started lining up together like sardines on the pole to sleep. By the time all 26 were represented I didn’t bother to avoid the balcony at all, they simply didn’t bother me…often, they would move a bit when I came outside. I got quite attached to these wasps, more than I would have ever thought possible and I would often watch them build early in the morning and count them at night to see if they were all there…if one went missing, I must admit I worried about it.
This is odd for me folks to a great degree. I mean you’re reading about a guy here who is a very serious hater when it comes to wasps. Now here I am watching these guys, saying hi to them when I come out and worrying if they’re alright when they go away. I also no longer turn on the light on the porch at night except to count them, because it wakes them up. That’s pretty weird folks, but there’s a lesson in all this and maybe even a point.
Just a few minutes ago I went outside to see the wasps and check The Plant (a member of the Broken Doll crew and my only pet – the wasps are not pets they are roommates), and low and behold the colonies eggs had hatched. Flying about the pole gathering point and the group on the nest were a bunch of little wasps full of energy, whizzing here and there and bumping into the big ones who seem to be moving about a bit more today (perhaps they are excited). It made me smile; made me smile real big at the fact that there really is magic in this world that a lot of people don’t notice. I know, I know, people say that sort of thing when discussing human children, but I found it with bugs. I’m no entomologist and I’m not a huge fan of bugs to begin with, but I had to stop and think that I helped to some degree provide a safe place for this colony and perhaps that makes up for what I did to the other one.
Now, I know likely there is a chance they may get angry or protective now that the young ones are around and come after me, but I’m giving them their space for the time being, and even if they do sting me (or attempt to) I’ll be damned to the Twelve Towers if I’m going to kill them. I suppose I learned that creatures are what they are and that we are generally the ones now who are disrupting their world. It took a balance to really emphasize that for me.
So be good to your bugs, folks, they all serve some purpose and we all share life. If you think this one’s cheesy, that’s fine, it really is a bit cheesy, but then again, you can’t get too much more geek than me kids – I write role-playing games for a living.
From Denton, TX 15 August, 2006
- Ashe
Recent Comments