That Wasp in Your Beer Is a Stressed-Out, Unemployed Single Mother

A reluctant defence of the garden's most necessary arseholes European Paper Wasp pollinating a marigold - My photo Wasps. The striped bloody nuisances of the garden world, the uninvited guests at every summer picnic, the tiny, winged psychopaths that turn a man sipping a beer on his terrace into a flailing, panic-dancing fool. I've sworn at them, run from them, and on one memorable occasion, attempted to fend one off with a frying pan. It did not end well for my dignity. My daughter Jennifer is a "flying things that sting you magnet" and swears blind that she is stung at least twice a week. But here's the thing, and it pains my inner grump to admit it: we've got them all wrong. Mostly. Because alongside all the thuggery, they're vital, if deeply unpleasant, members of the ecosystem. They're the binmen, the pest control, and the slightly unhinged bouncers of the natural world. So, in the spirit of fairness, let's try to see them for what they are: nasty, necessary little fuckers. The…