Happy Birthday Mr Darwin and the End of the Wasps

On the 200th anniversary of his birth, Darwin’s 150 year old thesis has been demonstrated in our backyard. The beautiful, silky-soft, fragile nest of common wasps has gone and the atoms of those who called it home are taking another form. Somewhere in the memory of waspness is a tiny learning that the comfortable box holding a water meter which has to be read every six months is not the place to set up home.
It gave me no pleasure to bring about the death of these beautiful creatures. Sure, they’re fairly recent invaders of NZ and might have diluted the local gene pool by hybridising with other wasps. But what’s done is done and I can now fix the leaky tap.
And thanks to the Council who last week made us a generous gift by declaring that, after some weeks of inter-departmental discussions, the nest - and the problem! - is actually on our property. I must remember to ask for a Deed of Conveyance as our present title deed, not to mention their own regulations both insist that it is on theirs.
And I will put out a Wasp Warning sign for the meter reader, just in case.

Curious NZ readers may be interested to know that the black bands around the chest of the common wasp are much thicker than those on the better-known German wasp. And the common wasps build a basketball-size nest in underground spaces - such as water meter boxes. See, we have all learned something from our environment on Darwin's 200th birthday.