Wasps were there throughout the decades that Mrs Weston – “Auntie Vi” to generations of climbers along the cliff-rimmed coast of south Pembrokeshire – ran Ye Olde Worlde Cafe opposite the Vicarage Field campsite. On a recent sunny afternoon I sharply remembered her memory, her immaculate coiffure. Vespula vulgaris – the common yellowjacket – was still here, causing consternation around garden tables, doing no harm.
Why do wasps arouse such fierce human antagonism? They’re quite beautiful. I watch in fascination as, antennae in constant motion, they stalk round rims of paper cups that have replaced Auntie Vi’s best china. Eager wasps tumble into sugary dregs, to be fished out with a teaspoon – or perhaps not, according to the customer’s degree of panic.
Like wasps, climbers crave sugar and on the whole are not fazed. Both do well in the garden of what’s been lamentably renamed the Bosh Tea Rooms. Ivy still grows across its walls, chattering sparrows quest across lawns for crumbs, the sun beats down, and memories glow of walks, climbs and friendships from long ago. The cafe’s an outdoor institution, at the start of ways down to Stackpole’s lily ponds and Broad Haven’s pristine beach. Why should the wasps not enjoy it here too?
I’ve had my moments with wasps, of course. Once, peering into a shed in an overgrown garden nearby, a speedy, immaculately striped, slim-waisted squadron of sentries zoomed out of a papery grey nest and into my open-necked shirt. They administered seven fiercely burning stings before I stripped off the shirt, whirled it about, and escaped their attentions.
Little harm came of the attack. I bear wasps no grudges, and came away from the experience with a healthy respect for them and a sense too of their capacity for cooperative action in defence of their nest. They appeared to be acting in concert, and to draw off by mutual agreement once warning had been given.
I’ve just read with avid attention Seirian Sumner’s marvellous book Endless Forms – a passionate plea for recognition of the ecological importance of wasps being on a par with, if not superior to, that of bees. She’s convinced me. If wasps inherit the earth, can they do worse than humanity?
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