h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Wasps -how to trap them. - A215885
Author: Silas Eybin - U102506

I like this

That trap also works well with the fruit-fly pest .

I recall ( with joy ) my grandfather's plum trees, one white plum in particular . I could rhapsodise about their size , their flavour , the glorious white and gold striped skin ,though the memories are perhaps coloured by 70 years of nostalgic recall .
However , there was aways so much fruit , that some fell and if not picked up to be disposed of ( fruit-fly hazard ) they would quickly ferment - or so it seemed .

Whatever. The wasps would come , gorge themselves on the nectar , and reel about , sometimes falling on their backs with little legs kicking in the air , in what looked very like a state of inebriation !

Well whaddya know - another DNA at h2g2 Welcome to Peer Review

So you want to put forward someone else's entry huh? You've gone about it in pretty much the right way, but there are a couple of things you should do before submitting another researcher's entry to Peer Review.

Firstly, find out if there's already an edited entry on the subject matter of the entry you're submitting. You can do this by clicking on the link 'Avanced Search' which you'll find on just about every h2g2 page. You'll find yourself at a page with several search options - you'll need to use 'Search the Guide'. Check the two boxes which say 'Edited Entries' and 'Recommended Entries', uncheck the box which says Guide Entries', enter the title of the entry you're submitting, and hit 'Search the Guide'.

If there is already an edited entry on the subject, then there can't be another, and sadly in this case there is... kind of. Most of this particular entry about trapping wasps has already been incorporated into an edited entry about wasps which you can find here A225839.

Secondly (assuming that you've already performed the search, right? ), it's considered the done thing to ask the researcher who wrote the entry if they'd mind you submitting it to Peer Review. Most of them don't, and for a while now there's also been a box which an author can check when writing an entry, which prevents the entry from being submitted by anyone else. However, there are many researchers who have wandered away from h2g2 before this gadget was introduced, and Silas seems to be one of them.

In the case of an AWOL researcher like Silas, the best thing to do is to leave a message on his (or her) Personal Space to say that you'd like to submit their entry, and wait four weeks to see if they reply. If they don't, leave another post to say that you're submitting their entry, as they seem to be an inactive researcher as far as you can tell, and leave them a link to the Peer Review thread once you've done so.

Have you seen these two pages yet Writing-Beginners and Writing-Guidelines? They'll give you a lot of information about the workings of the edited section of h2g2, as well as plenty of tips about how to write your own entries. I reckon you've probably already had a look at PeerReview. If you want to know more about working with someone else's entry, just ask any of the Scouts for help

Don't be discouraged though - it's all part of getting the hang of the workings of h2g2, and the more you dip your toe into these processes, the more you'll learn about how they function

Thankyou!

i love this poem:

WASP POEM

Today i drowned a wasp that i
found floating in my wine.
Its life no longer its own,
but neither is it mine.
With cool precision turned by hate
I drowned it in the sink-
it struggled in the water
but i didnt stop to think.

i didnt feel a pang at all
i didnt change my mind
i didnt even really feel
that this was cruel unkind
if metamorphosis exists
perhaps a wasp ill be
and i wont feel resentment
if you do the same to me
i may regret the sunshine
the pollen and the jam
but ill understand youre drowning me
because im what i am
BY VERITY BARGATE

I like the idea of (most of) this entry. If it can be rewritten to fit the writing guidelines it'll be a usefull addition to the Edited Guide.

However, although wasps are considered pests to humans, they are actually good for the garden (they are very good predators, and kill other insects that we consider pests. And at the end of the day, they are part of the natural cycle of life). And I'd prefer if the entry steered away from mentioning ways to kill the wasps as a way of empyting the trap. Although I don't know how they could be released safely.

I would say that using traps regularly is going to encourage more wasps, so it's a vicious circle, but that doesn't mean the entry shouldn't be in the Guide.

will they sting you if they're cold?
How about taking them a long way away and opening the trap with a piece of string?
Play quiet music at them?
Sing them a lullaby?

You could put the to sleep- fill the bottle with smoke, that will stupify them. Open the bottle, and get out of there. When the smoke clears, the evil things will wake up, and they can fly away free.

Well, DNA, how about including the humane ideas, removing the first person aspects, and off to a sub-ed with it?

PS- if this goes to the FM, it's *mine*

Di you know, I'm a hypocrite. One of the first entries that I wrote for h2g2 contains info on getting rid of mice, and mentions backbreaking traps. I'm going to see if I can get that removed. I've changed in the last three years...

Least its quick for the little buggers- rather than ages of being toyed with by sadistic s

Least its quick for the little buggers- rather than ages of being toyed with by sadistic s

They were using inhumane (poison) traps at my school, but I was ill, and by the time I found out about it all the mouses had been killed. Life and sparks of conciousness are too rare and precious to be taken like that, and you shouldn't take something you can't give back.

<< they are part of the natural cycle of life >>

Hi Mina

Not everywhere they're not
http://www.learnz.org.nz/2001/rotoiti/wasps-beech.htm

>The reasons for trapping wasps should be obvious. Anyone who has spend time outdoors in summer with sugary food will instantly understand.

No, I still don't understand why it's necessary to trap wasps. I've eaten ice cream in the park on hot summer afternoons. I've hosted barbecues in the garden with delicious wasp-enticing desserts. I've sometimes had several different wasps' nests in the roof at the same time. All right, on one occasion I did have to call in the pest control people to deal with about a dozen different nests, but that was an exceptional year. Sometimes my children have been stung in bed by a sleepy wasp - this is most likely to happen in autumn and early winter than in high summer. My wife was, as a young child, once attacked by a swarm of wasps and could have been severely injured or even killed had she not been rescued in time. She still remembers that horrific experience vividly.

Yet we have never even thought about trapping them. Cover food, shoo the wasps away, or in the last resort go indoors for dessert. They won't follow you.

They follow *me* I have a phobia about wasps- bees, ha! Big Dogs- whose a good boy then? Wasps- turn me into a screaming 4 year old. And they don't go away, sat outside pubs i summer, I've been driven inside by the sheer number- four or five 'round my glass at a time . Set up some traps 6 foot or so away from where you are, and relax. Don't want to kill them? Pump the bottle full of smoke, then turn it upside down and

Well, DNA -- still planning on working on this one? Thinking of adding in some of the bits that have been suggested here in the thread?

::COUGH::

Yes, its a bit dusty around here, here O Anonymous One, try this

Ooh ta Don't mind if I do.