Cambridge has two pieces of good news to report. Those trees on Jesus Green which I showed enveloped in ghostly white film and stripped of leaves are now back in business. With the gypsy moth caterpillars gone, the protective white shroud they spun has disappeared, and the trees have all regrown leaves in abundance, as my photograph shows. Just a few weeks later it’s as if it never happened.
The other piece of good news is that wasps are barely to be seen this year. The plague of picnics, outdoor eating and beer gardens is conspicuous by its absence. I don’t recall seeing any yet this year. The experts tell us this is down to last year’s variable weather. In 2012 mild days in February brought the mated queens early from hibernation, but when the weather turned bad and available food dwindled, many did not survive to populate nests with their offspring. Bad news for wasps, but good news for picnickers. Since each nest might contain 5,000 wasps, that’s a great deal of hassle-free outdoor pleasure we can enjoy unspoiled.
Filed under: Updates |
Madsen Pirie 
Lack of wasps is not necessarily a good thing. Wasps among other creepy crawlies destroy caterpillars. The gypsy moth caterpillars which defaced the Cambridge trees probably had an easy life due to the absence of wasps in your area. There are plenty of wasps and ladybirds in my area at the moment and very few caterpillars. We never get anything for nothing in this life except rain and cool fresh air……..hang on, I’m not so sure about that at the moment.