It is the sting in the tale of the heatwave. According to the British Pest Control Association (BPCA), the hot weather has resulted in a plague of wasps, “the worst in recent years”. The BPCA’s technical officer, Natalie Bungay, said that the organisation has been “destroying” an average of 12 wasp nests a day.

By late August, the wasp queens go back into hibernation, leaving large numbers of workers purposeless and desperately seeking sugar.

Last weekend I overhead someone complaining: “I mean, what are wasps for?” she asked her friend. I couldn’t help butting in, telling her that they are vital pollinators without whom our human global economy would collapse. With this in mind, here are five other reasons to love wasps:

1 They are insects of extraordinary, varied and graphic beauty. We have seven species in the UK, from the common wasp to the hornet and the sand digger.

2 They are intensely well-organised, cooperative animals; not for nothing do sports teams adopt those yellow and black stripes.

3 They are exquisite engineers, creating intricate paper nests that would shame any architect.

4 They actively protect us from other pests. Each summer, UK wasps eat 14 million kilograms of insect prey, such as caterpillars and greenfly, which might otherwise infest our crops and gardens.

5 They are certainly drawn to our sugary drinks and food. But isn’t that just another incentive to cut down on sugar?

And the one reason to mistrust them? Sure, they sting (a 15th-century recipe recommends goose dung as a sovereign remedy) – but only if you attack first.



The greatest problem wasps have is humans, because we are so unlike them. In his book, Insectopedia, Hugh Raffles writes: “We simply cannot find ourselves in these creatures … They do not respond to acts of love or mercy or remorse.”

What are wasps for? I think they must ask the same question about us.