I was relaxing at home this evening when I heard a loud banging and buzzing above me. Looking up I could see something large and going by the way the light was being moved with each crash fairly heavy was flying about below the ceiling rose. Given the noise I thought maybe it was a drone but the shape looked a bit off and it was moving very fast. Eventually it went behind a picture (Dali's "the Elephants, 1948, in case you were wondering) so I used my phone camera to sneak a look. I could only see the silhouette but it was clearly something cleaning it's antenna. I figured it was probably a wasp as I've seen them doing the same thing so often. Definitely looked a bit big though. I pulled in a bee jacket and some rubber gloves then removed the picture (it's a print, not an original -I don't sell quite that much honey yet). Before I got a good luck it took flight and went into the light shade. I tried knocking it out but only succeeded in damaging the paper globe. Doh. To get a better look I decided to stick my phone in there with her.
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| Vespula Vulgaris in my now to be replaced lightshade |
That was her. A Common Wasp , Vespula Vulgaris. She looks a bit on the chubby to me though. I can't be sure but I think she may have be a Queen who'd been woken up early from hibernation by the heating. It took a while to catch her and my light shade is a goner but I managed to get her into an old honey jar and take a couple of photos for posterity.
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| Those wings look longer than her body |
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| Head shot |
I then took the jar lid off and flicked her into the back garden. I think she may have been a bit dehydrated as once in the jar she wasn't doing much apart from staying still and posing for photos.
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