A few months ago, I noticed a small nest on the window
of my house. It was very small, and I
didn’t know whose nest it was. As time
passed, the nest started growing and I realised that it was the nest of
wasps. I was really fascinated by the way
they were constructing the nest. I kept
observing the process every day. It was small,
and it had only a few wasps. Since it
was built on a window on one covered part of the building where nobody disturbed
them, I decided to leave it there.
But, within days I could see phenomenal growth in its size and the number of wasps multiplied exponentially. I kept observing their movements. I could see hundreds of them always moving in and out of the nest. The wasps were very active during the daytime. Most of them would fly out and return back soon to the nest. Though they were very active during the daytime, they all crammed into the nest by evening. They rarely came out in the night and the nest looked as if there were no wasps inside, while hundreds of them were actually there!
Shortly, the nest became huge, and I started worrying about the risk of the nest being disturbed by someone resulting in dangerous consequences. Though wasp sting is not poisonous, when hundreds of them attack, it can be fatal. But I kept thinking, when we don’t bother them, why would they attack us?
One day I left my home to go to the office after lunch. When I sat on my office chair I felt as if someone gave me an injection in my leg. I jumped out of the chair. Yes, it was a wasp! It was probably sitting on my chappal which I had left outside my house. When I wore the chappal, it would have climbed on to my leg. It was very painful. Now that the wasps had breached the trust, I decided that I must get that nest removed from my house.
To my surprise and shock, nobody was available in Tumkur for removing wasp nests. I started getting panicky. I was also worried about my neighbours who were at risk. From the internet, I located an agency at Bangalore, specializing in pest control, including removal of wasp nests. When I contacted them, they told me that they do not provide service outside Bangalore. But they gave me the number of another person. This guy was also from Bangalore but was willing to come to Tumkur and do the job. However, he demanded a very high fee for the service. When I asked him how he was planning to remove the nest, he was not willing to disclose. Somehow, I was not convinced about this guy, especially because, if he made any mistake while removing the nest, all wasps would come out and attack people nearby.
Meanwhile, I also did a lot of research on wasps by surfing the internet. I learnt about their behaviour, life span, making the nest etc. I also read that the wasps usually leave the nest after a few months, especially during winter and once abandoned they never come back to a nest. During winter they won’t get food and would die due to starvation. By then, the winter was starting, and I could see a few of them falling dead near the nest. One day a friend of mine told me that wasps had made a huge nest near his house too and the same was abandoned after a few months. So, I kept observing the nest every day. As days went by, I found more and more falling dead. Slowly the nest was completely empty.
Today the nest remains there as a monument of a onetime
‘Wasp Empire’!
