The Big Wasp Survey

I heard about the Big Wasp Survey last weekend, and decided to have a go.

Apparently we know a lot less about wasps and their distribution than we do about bees. So this is all about citizen science helping to redress the balance - a bit.

So I made my wasp trap Monday evening. This involved filling a plastic bottle with half a can of lager, cutting the top off and then upending it to allow worker wasps attracted to the sweetness to fall in. As these have done their work now, the idea is that this will have no impact on the wasp populations. The specimens are then collected and sent off. 

Although having googled to find out a bit more I find that this survey is more controversial than I had expected.

It all seems a bit silly of course - there has been so much rain this last week that all worker wasps have probably curled up and died ! And the lager is somewhat diluted. Wasps collected so far - 0. 

So this represents rather a waste of perfectly good lager (bit too sweet for me though, I have to say).