This morning...

...when I woke up early, I opened the doors to the garden to let in the cool morning air.

(Warning, this a long post with a a few links. But if you want to miss out the bit in the middle, then scroll to the end and look at the last link which describes agricultural farm land which has become a functioning ecosystem again, heaving with life, allowing Mother Nature free reign.)

I was going out in the garden to do some painting. But my neck and back hurt. I must have slept funny. So I got back into bed with a coffee for a bit.

But not before I had noticed a lot of winged insects in my back garden. It was chock a block full of different species of bees, different species of droneflies, different species of wasps, and much more. I had hundreds of different species of flying insects in my small back garden which I let grow wild.

Then I realised I had left the potting shed open overnight, so I checked it out. All was okay. Coming back down the path I am bumping into the flying insects. So many of them.

Anyway I settle back into bed with a black coffee. But then this winged insect I have never seen before flew into my bedroom. It looked very wasp like in colouring and markings,but it was long and slim and it’s long wings were going very fast. I shoed it out and it flew up the garden path, only for a blackbird to emerge from the undergrowth and snap it up in it’s beak so that solved that.

Later there were a lot more of the same flying insect, dozens of them. Half a dozen flew into my bedroom, wings beating frantically. I left my bedroom. Went outside, but that was no better...

I tried to look at them to ID what they were, but they were beating their wings very fast and flying in a weird manner. Too fast for me study properly. Then they dispersed. Thank goodness.

I went to brush my teeth and I am thinking, if only one had flown into the bathroom and was trying to get out through the closed window then I could photograph it...then I looked upwards...aaagggh.

Got iPad and these are the best shots I could get. It didn’t stay still for a second.

I was worried there was a nest of these things nearby. So I needed to ID it to know if it was a stinging insect. Finally a couple of hours later as well as a few more invasions into my bedroom I ID’d it.

It was a wasp. It can sting.

However it is a parasitic wasp. If you want to know the delightful habits of parasitic wasps have a peek at ceridwen’s entry a few days ago 29 June 2018
https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2459490728921796199


However my parasitic wasp is called an Ichneumon stramentor. It is about 18mm long...

Its hosts are moth pupae, and frequently reared from large yellow underwing and
setaceous Hebrew character. I have both moths in my back garden.

I am assuming that as I had so many of these parasitic wasps, they had just hatched out nearby, maybe even from my garden.

Also the one in my bathroom (yes I did open the window for him to escape) was a male. Because it didn’t have the yellow dot at the end of its black rear end. As far as I could tell they were all males in my garden. Unless because they had recently hatched the females hadn’t fully developed the yellow dot. I don’t know much about parasitic wasps.

I found out that the fast beating of their wings was because they were trying to attract a female. The faster they beat their wings the more the females find it attractive.

Here’s a link to new parasitic wasps discovered in Australia
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5893645/The-Alien-wasp-injects-eggs-live-caterpillars-offspring-EAT-way-out.html

Then I found something I thought was a bit disturbing - parasitic wasps genetically modifying butterflies
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3239799/Parasitic-wasps-genetically-modifying-butterflies-Insects-passing-virus-alters-genome-caterpillars.html

Coming back to my wild back garden, (if you are still reading!), it is a haven for wildlife. I have had so many different bees, wasps, droneflies, more than I have ever seen on one day before, and the bonus was the multitude of beautiful perfect butterflies in my garden late this morning until now (6pm). If you are wondering why you didn’t get a pretty photo of a butterfly, the problem is when you advance on them with a massive iPad, the butterfly is gone...

Just one more thing before I post. Have a read of this article (it is a long read but worth it) if you are interested in more natural ways of doing things like letting Mother Nature taking more of a role. I think I had better put a warning that this is a long post, maybe better with a cuppa...maybe I will resume normal service tomorrow...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5640191/How-letting-Mother-Nature-reclaim-prime-farmland-produced-breathtaking-results.html