Ants, Bees, and Wasps

by Paddy Heneghan

Our Uncle Tom was by way of being an eccentric in many ways.  He was not the most popular of donors of Christmas gifts, but he did at this time give a present to each of the four children in our household.  His gifts came frequently in the shape of educational books, whereas we looked forward to getting silly and noisy things like drums, toy guns and so on.  Among the books I received from him were, for example, The Science of Languages, The Arabian Nights, The Starry Heaven, and Beasts, all of which I still have and cherish.

One of the books was entitled ‘Ants, Bees and Wasps’.  It gave me valuable insights into the world we shared with these useful and interesting, if sometimes dangerous, creatures. So I would like to share my experiences with the world of these insects.

Ants.

I take first the ants. One of the first little verses I learned in my Spanish class was the following:

Lo que hoy las Hormigas son, eran los hombres antaño:
De lo propio y de lo extraño hacían su provisión.
Júpiter, que tal passion notó de siglos atrás,
No pudiendo aguantar más, en hormigas los transforma:
Ellos mudaron de forma.  Y de costumbres? Jamás.

(The ants of today were once humans. They lived from their own resources and the resources of others.  The deity noted this angrily and could not stand it any longer.  The appearance of the ants was changed.  But as to their habits?  Never!)

How do ants compare with humans?  Most ants are predatory and some prey on and obtain food from other social insects.  Some species of ants specialise in preying on other ants and on termites.  That resembles the behaviour of some groups of predatory humans towards their fellow human, and that was what Jupiter could not stand for, so he turned that species into ants.  Their appearance changed. But as to their habit, never!  It’s a pity another Jupiter does not come to help out.

 As to relationships with humans, ants perform many beneficial ecological roles including the suppression of pest populations and the aeration of the soil.  So ants are not all bad!

My complaint about ants is that from time to time they infest our gardens and if you happen to sit down on the grass they will infest yourself, and sting you.

I had an interesting experience with ants during one of my visits to the United States.  When holidaying in Athens, Georgia, I noticed a mass of ants on the margin of a pathway.  They were of an exceptionally bright brown colour, and they were later indentified for me by my son, who is a biologist, as fire ants, an invasive pest in the United States.  There the cost of dealing with and controlling the species comes to the region of five billion dollars a year, to cover medical treatments and crop damage.  These red ants do not otherwise bother humans, save for foolish people like myself who are inclined to give the nest a toe-poke, which I did.  Luckily enough I did not persist with my behaviour long enough to allow the ants to get a grip.  A sting of one of these insects swells into a bump, which can cause much pain, especially when several stings are in the same place.  There are home remedies for these stings, but if they become infected medical treatment is required.

Bees

Next we can take a look at the more amiable bees.  Television programmes frequently show bee-keepers at work with bees.  These insects pollinate plants and produce honey and wax.  For myself, however, I give all bees a wide berth, as I did have had a rather unpleasant experience in my childhood with a type of bee called the bumble bee.

Often confused with honey bees, the bumble bee is larger and furrier, with yellow/red banding across the end of their tails. They are social insects, living in colonies. They nest in earthen banks, abandoned mouse-holes and the like.  Bumble bees are not aggressive and will sting only if they feel threatened.  They are important pollinators of many plants and fruiting trees.

During my primary school years myself and a couple of my school pals regularly went to play in and explore a then rural area of North Dublin called Finglas.  One summer’s evening on our way home from Finglas we watched some bumble bees emerging from a hole in a road-side dry ditch.  Nothing would do us but to get a long stick and give the hole a few pokes.  Suddenly we found ourselves the target of a swarm of the so-called “soldier” bees, a provision in bee-hives which the course of evolution was a type developed in most colonies.  We set off citywards “ar nós na gaoithe” (a phrase in the Irish language “Like the wind”), closely followed by the soldiers.  When the bees gave up the chase I found I had gotten one painful sting and the two others each got several stings.  One lad was still in severe pain after we got back to the city.  We investigated by removing his shirt, and found a bee which was working merrily away on the poor lad’s back.

We learned later that while the honey bee delivers one sting and dies thereafter, the bumble bee can deliver multiple stings and lives on.

Wasps

Now I invite your attention to the wasp.  In latter years I have had to deal with no fewer than three hives of wasps which invaded my property.

The wasp is an insect which is neither a bee nor an ant.  It is an “in-betweener”, all three groups having descended from a common ancestor.  The most commonly known wasps are the “yellow jackets” which live together in a nest with an egg-laying queen, non-reproducing female workers which tend the queen, a small number of drones and “soldier wasps”.

All species of social wasps construct their nests using some form of plant fiber (mostly from wood pulp) supplemented with secretions from the wasps themselves. The placement of nests varies from group to group, yellow jackets preferring to nest in trees and shrubs, but they will also build colonies in hollow walls where they can find suitable entry points.

Social wasps are considered pests when they become excessively common, or nest close to buildings. People are most often stung in late summer, when wasp colonies stop breeding new workers.  As the existing workers search frantically for sugary foods they are more likely to come into contact with humans.  They often respond aggressively and sting if the nest is approached.  Stings are usually painful rather than dangerous, but in rare cases people may suffer life-threatening shocks.

My first episode with wasps involved the removal of an active nest built by the wasps under and attached to the ceiling of our glass conservatory.  This was done by attaching “blue tack” putty around the rim of a suitably- sized plastic bowl, putting some wasp-killer powder onto cotton wool and into the bowl, and attaching the bowl to the ceiling over the nest.  After a few days the bowl and the cotton wool was taken down, and all the wasps had died.

My second episode involved killing a colony of wasps which had penetrated the top of a garden wall which was under the shelter of a covered way.  The nest was not near any vulnerable part of the garden and late one night when the wasp activity had ceased I covered the opening to the nest with a heavy towel which I weighed down with a concrete block.  The wasps ceased to emerge and obviously perished.

The third episode provided the greatest challenge to the removal of the nest.  Again the wasps penetrated the top of an 8 foot garden wall which was open to the sky.  This proved to be a very awkward place to reach.  My hardware store offered a couple of solutions in the shape of killing powder or an anti-wasp spray to kill the wasps.  A Google search suggested another remedy such as spraying the nest with gasoline, which was considered a risky fire hazard.  Neighbours suggested that spraying the nest with washing-up liquid dissolved in water would disable the wasps’ flying capacity and kill them.

The ultimate remedy would obviously be to engage a professional pest-control agency to deal with the wasps, the likely cost of which would be upwards of €80, depending on the location of the nest.
As October was approaching, and the first frost would kill the whole colony, I decided to leave the problem to Mother Nature.  At first frost the only survivor of the colony would be the queen, which before the winter would seek out a safe hiding place and emerge in the spring to found a new colony. I am assured that the queen never returns to the site of a previous foundation.

Many people would be aware of the importance of bees and wasps as pollinators of plants which provide food.  Accordingly the destruction of such insects should be avoided if at all possible.

Tragic death in 1876 of George Knowling

by Patrick J (Paddy) Heneghan

George Knowling of Water Street, Waterford City, who died by drowning in 1876, was my great-grandfather.  My mother was Elizabeth Foley of Tralee, eldest daughter of Martha Knowling of Waterford City, who was one of the five children of George Knowling.

The name Knowling has disappeared in Ireland, the subsequent generations of this George I now write of having adapted to the very common Irish name Nolan.  My grandmother Martha Foley (née Martha Knowling) married John J. Foley of Tralee under the name Martha Nolan.  The place of her former childhood residence - Water Street - in Waterford was over time cleared and the street no longer exists.  Her sister, whom we called Aunt Ciss, married Johnnie White and they lived in St Alphonus Road, Waterford, with their two children Laurence (Sonny) and Eileen (Eily).  All of those mentoned in this paragraph are now deceased.

My grandmother Foley never spoke about the death of her father, but I picked up the broad details of the story of his drowning during regular visits to Tralee during my childhood.  The family tale was a smooth story with no loose ends, and left nothing unexplained.  It turned out to be an impressionistic picture of the original historic and indeed heroic event.  It went as follows:

George Knowling with two companions went out in a rowboat on the river Suir.  A sudden gust of wind overturned the boat and the three were left in the water hanging on to the side of the boat.  George Knowling was the only one of the three who could swim, and he was able to help in getting one of the party to the quayside.  He then swam back to rescue the other.  He reached the boat as it was being carried seawards with the current.  The boat drifted away and no trace was ever found afterwards of the two men.  It was assumed that George was just too exhausted to get himself and his companion back to shore.  That was the extent of the story as it came down to us children

I make a slight but relevant digression here.  Some years ago I bought a book written by a history professor named White from a Boston University.  His mother was a lady from a place called Aghnagran, near Listowel, in County Kerry.  This lady grew up on a somewhat impoverished farm from which her father had emigrated to Chicago, leaving his wife and family in Ireland.  This daughter in her late teens joined her father in Chicago, and during the course of the Second World War got work with an airline company in Chicago.  She met and married an officer named White of the United States air force, and their her son, the professor referred to, heard many stories from his mother about her family back home in Ireland.  After his mother’s death the professor eventually, out of professional as well as personal curiosity, decided to visit Ireland to see the scenes of his mother’s early adventures and to check out with his relatives the accuracy of his mother’s stories.  He received a very warm from his many Irish relatives. On his return to the Boston the professor wrote a book about his visit to Aghnagran and concluded  that oral tradition does not like complications, and that tales of events, over time, such as those he heard from his mother, become moulded and simplified, and sometimes can be quite inaccurate as to the facts.  Oral tradition, he wrote, does not like complicated speculation.

In my efforts to discover further the details of my great-grandfather’s death, I wrote to the central Library in Waterford.  In reply I was told that the library could not trace any record of the drowning event, but they supplied me with an account of the work of a noted George Nolan, builder, who, they speculated, could have been a relative.  I got no further in my own researches until the press account of the inquest turned up.  A copy of the text follows:

From The Waterford Daily Mail, March 20, 1876.  Report of Inquest

DEATH BY DROWNING – LOSS OF THREE LIVES

One of the most distressing accidents which has occurred for a long series of years took place about six o’clock last Saturday evening.  Four young men, named McClelland, Nolan, Condon, and Ronayne had put out in a boat for the purpose of exercise prior to a regatta which it was contemplated holding in a short time.  The three first-named were  employees of Mr J P Graves’ sawmill, McClelland, who was a native of Scotland and a married man, being foreman sawyer. Ronayne was a very young man and was unmarried.  His widowed mother keeps a public house in Manor-street, and the deceased was an only son.  He had only about a month previously terminated his apprenticeship as an engine-fitter at the engine works of the Waterford and Limerick Railway.

Nolan leaves a wife and five children to be provided for.  He had been an enthusiastic admirer of aquatic sports, and was considered an experienced amateur.  The boat, which had been only a short time purchased, was the joint property of the ill-fated young men who lost their lives out of her.  She was fitted with a sail, and to this circumstance was attributed the untimely fate which overtook the occupants.

It will be remembered that the entire of Saturday was remarkable as being windy, squalls occurring at intervals; and it was owing to a sudden gust, which burst upon them with the violence of a hurricane, and with the rapidity of lightening, that the boat was capsized, and its occupants precipitated into the water.  The gale had sprung up while they were in the act of tacking from north to south, they having been ashore a short time previously and having determined to run for Woodlands adjoining the demesne of Faithlegg when the boat upset.

Condon struck out for the Waterford shore, and succeeded in safely reaching Woodlands, and on coming to land he was observed to sit upon a large stone while he endeavoured to ascertain what had become of his comrades.

McClelland had made for the opposite direction and had succeeded in making the shore but there he was shortly after discovered with his topcoat covering his head and face downward with arms outstretched, as if in the act of swimming.  It was on the grounds of Mr. P. Anderson, Glasshouse, that the unfortunate young man was lying, and that gentleman had him removed to his house, where all the means which humanity could suggest to restore animation was freely applied, but without avail:  the Suir’s cold tide had extinguished the vital spark, and his two comrades had found a resting place beneath its turgid waters.

Nothing has since been seen of the bodies of Ronayne and Nolan, though constant grappling is taking place in the river. The recovered body was placed in an outhouse belonging to Mr. Anderson, and remained there pending an inquest which was held on Monday by Mr. T. Izod, Coroner for the Co. Kilkenny, when a verdict in accordance with the facts stated was returned by the jury.   END