Heartland

"If I take refuge in ambiguity, I assure you it's quite conscious."

Motz wrote:

Obviousman wrote:There goes my nature knowledge credibility

Anyway, I don't mind any of those flying thingies, as long as they don't sting and don't make noise

So that would be just about none of them then?

Err, I'd say ants, but they're not categorisable as flying thingies, so, I guess none indeed

I thought some ants could fly - queen ants?

When I was younger I seem to remember my garden being full of them flying around.

I could be wrong though

Brideoffrankenstein wrote:I thought some ants could fly - queen ants?

When I was younger I seem to remember my garden being full of them flying around.

I could be wrong though

Yes, there are flying ants... But I guess they make noise too, so

we have been plagued by flying ants this summer

James Blast wrote:we have been plagued by flying ants this summer

Ah.... they can be added to cheese, dogs, and pigeons.

definately not cheese I worship at the altar du fromage
I like some dogs, big friendly loloping labs fer instance, but not the girl-next-door's aging devil dug and as I said previously, pigeons taste good

James Blast wrote:definately not cheese I worship at the altar du fromage
I like some dogs, big friendly loloping labs fer instance, but not the girl-next-door's aging devil dug and as I said previously, pigeons taste good

Good man James. You can't beat a good loloping Lab. Got 2 of the buggers. They are the most fantastic affectionate creatures.

@ Scardwel: You bastard, I wanted to post a pisture of them.

Seriously, I've seen a few, but not too many this year.

Hom_Corleone wrote:

James Blast wrote:definately not cheese I worship at the altar du fromage
I like some dogs, big friendly loloping labs fer instance, but not the girl-next-door's aging devil dug and as I said previously, pigeons taste good

Good man James. You can't beat a good loloping Lab. Got 2 of the buggers. They are the most fantastic affectionate creatures.

I'm in love with (certain) dogs as well... When well educated, they're the best...

And particularly fond of my own doggy... (of the English Setter variety, great dogs!)

canon docre wrote:was it just me, who thought by reading the headline, it was about White Anglo-Saxon Protestants?

I almost automatically thought of Wild Anti-Social Pigs myself.

IZ.

is it too late to say We Are Sexual Perverts?

James Blast wrote:is it too late to say We Are Sexual Perverts?

we knew that anyway.

Dragonflies don't make a noise, don't sting and are rather beautiful. China is full of them. I entirely approve.

Wasps, as far as I can recall, will be playing home matches in the Guinness Premiership at Wycombe's Causeway Stadium (better known as Adams Park).

Next?

Wasps were terrible here in Holland last summer....only seen bubble bees in my garden, today and as for any flying things.....

*Dragonflies - are beautiful to see
*Flying ants - just make a mess
*Butterflies - the tiny white ones have been in abundance

Wasps here in Holland are funny little things that were more inquistive than aggressive BUT wasps and hornets and things like that in South Africa are a horrid kind.....and any nests we would kill by burning them to the ground....those near the house that is....in nature just STAYED AWAY.

Mayflies are pretty terrifying till they blossom, they only last in the 'splendid' stage for a day though

Every year we knew when it was summer 'cos when you went to the bathroom, you'd find yet another of the little bastards staggering round the room

This year, barely a peep. I think we've only been visited by a couple. and they were prolly trying to escape next doors barbecue

If next years the same, I'll be quite happy thank you. 'Orrible little bastards

the wasp absenteeism is,as john says, down to the "cold snap";and also a prematurely clement early spring which brought a fair few of them out too soon,with similar results.oh dear,how sad, never mind.

i too am one of the "unstung", and in ignorance as to my susceptibility to "apocalyptic" shock;so you won't see me spilling any tears over their scarcity.however,i have a certain respect for them as adversaries -enough to not think twice about killing them if they are in my space.
did you know that waspus germanicus -like wot we get- are the most highly evolved of all the european wasps and one of the most highly-evolved insects in nature? for example -the brown wasps that you get in east europe e.g. czech republic,although prolific,are a lot slower and less mailicious.a fine game to play is "catch the slow wasp under an empty glass" game;wherein it is possible to cover an outdoor pub table in upside-down beer glasses,each one trapping therein an angry little waspski -a total bastard for the glass collector though...

having no natural predators,an inexhaustible yet nasty weapons system and the ability to fly,what better way to spend the day than getting f**ked out of your mind on sugar -wasp PcP- and go around being obnoxious,vindictive aggro bastards ?and killing them releases a pheremone that screams "wasp murdered here!" -no,not to warn their brethren away, but to attract them in vengeful masses..

plus:one queen wasp coming out of hibernation in early may will lay enough eggs for the nest to have produced close to half a million wasps over two months...

James Blast wrote:is it too late to say We Are Sexual Perverts?

NEVER!

Johnny M wrote: But for anyone missing the little stripey b@stards, the waste bins either side of the chippy on Hunstanton prom still play host to a cast of thousands of the things.

It's always a tricky dilemma; do I starve? or I do I find out if I really am suspectible to anaphylactic shock?

Johnny, you're not hard up enough that you have to trawl through bins for your food and fight off hoards of wasps for the last chips?

ok folks, time to pull up our sleeves and organise JohnnyAid!

eastmidswhizzkid wrote: did you know that waspus germanicus -like wot we get- are the most highly evolved of all the european wasps and one of the most highly-evolved insects in nature?

One of these bastards stung in my eye-lid last summer, when out on the fields, working for a video shoot. Some East-Berlin friends of mine gave me the tip to put a raw onion on the lid. I guess it worked to keep the swelling down, but unfortunately I was stinking 30 miles against the wind afterwards.

Given the discomfort I get when I'm chopping up onions I think I'd rather be stung than put an onion on my eye-lid.

I'm sure last summer there was a scare story about super 'Euro-wasps' coming to the UK with their super-sized stings. It was probably the fault of Barmy Brussels Bureaucrats. Most things are.

For once, I agree with Noel Gallagher...All wasps are Bastards.

And we've a nest of the little f**kers in the back garden, inaccesible. I don't care how evolved they are, the one that stung me last week is a tw*t. And it got pounded for its trouble. The one that sting me Dad yesterday is also a tw*t.

Ants are a highly-evolved form of wasp too as it happens. Just like termites are highly-evolved cockroaches. Although if you go back far enough I guess you could say that everything alive is a highly-evolved bacterial colony

Anyhoo, having been stung by both a wasp and a bee, I can tell you that, unpleasant as a wasp-sting is, do your damnedest to avoid being stung by a honey bee. They fcuking hurt. Although my main reaction was sorrow that I'd accidentally killed the bee.

eastmidswhizzkid wrote: did you know that waspus germanicus -like wot we get- are the most highly evolved of all the european wasps and one of the most highly-evolved insects in nature?

The wasp that we get here is the"vespula vulgaris",and not the "waspus/vespula germanica"

But a wasp is a BASTARD wherever it comes from