Wasps 2

We're sitting in the garden, drinking beer and watching the sun sink towards the hills while the cousins bounce on the trampoline.

Our husbands are teasing my sister about her wasp sting.

Another wasp starts buzzing around us, dopy and groggy with windfall apples the way they are at this time of year.

I yelp and jump about flapping my arms.

My husband laughs at me.

"It's not going to sting you," he says.

I scowl at him and sit back down, keeping a wary eye on the offending insect.

He reaches for his beer.

Takes a sip....

And spits it back out.

"Aaargh," he says pointing to his mouth.

I look at the spat out beer. A dying, slightly bitten looking wasp is struggling in the froth.

"Aaargh," says my husband again.

Wasps 1

My sister is over with her family and we all head out into the hills behind my house.

There are some early blackberries in the hedgerows so we stop to pick them.

I suddenly feel a sharp stabbing pain on the back of my hand. I pull it back and there's a wasp - a black and yellow venemosity of viciousness stabbing away with its sting.

That's the last thing it ever does.

There's another on the collar of my sisters top.

"Stand still, I'll knock it off for you," says her husband.

He brushes at it with his hand.

He knocks it off.

It falls down the inside of her top and gets trapped in her bra.

Ouch!!

Caterpillars

I'm very fond of butterflies. I love watching them fluttering across the lawn or studding the flowers on my buddleia bush. Every so often one flutters into my greenhouse and bangs against the glass a few times before finding its way back out.

Unfortunately I think one of these butterflies has left me a little present.

Over the past few weeks I've been noticing holes in the leaves of my peppers and tomato plants. The holes have been getting bigger. One day I spotted a hole in one of my unripe tomatoes. I pulled it off, but the hole was empty.

Today I spotted the droppings. Unmistakable caterpillar droppings - and not small ones either!

I tried turning over the leaves but I couldn't see anything. Wherever these caterpillars are hiding they're too clever for me!

I looked in my book under common pests and diseases, but there's no mention of caterpillars eating tomato plants.

They're munching their way through my greenhouse!!

Help!!

August Photo