We had a visitor today. A large one.
I heard it before I saw it and intantly thought ‘that sounds big.’ – I wasn’t disappointed as it flew over Arthur’s head and out into the hall to repeatedly headbutt the light.
I followed it out and shut the door to keep it away from the Smalls before trying to take its picture & persuade it out of the nearest window using a postcard and lots of silent begging. I can’t decide if it was just a particularly large queen wasp or else something more hornet-like.
(Click images to make them bigger)
As I was ushering it toward freedom I was a little shocked when it stung a curious spider that came out to see what had tickled its web and decided maybe it wasn’t as docile as it had seemed wandering down the wall a few moments earlier.
I know my Dad would have given it a ‘friendly pat on the back’ with a newspaper or something similar but I never have the heart for that. It hadn’t done me or mine any harm, it just happened to have been in my flat. I chase everything outside if I can – wasps, flies, spiders, woodlice – I never flatten anything.
Out of curiosity – am I the only one that chases *everything* round the house with a postcard and an empty glass to put it outside? Or do you ‘pat on the back first and ask questions later’?


Gosh that was a biggy! I tend to usher them outside if I can, but spiders I leave alone to go about their business and eat everything else. The only thing I can’t stand is flies. They get dispatched forthwith.
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