Eilish Rothney\u2019s first instinct was to get rid of the wasps entering her converted shipping container in Norfolk. Now she enjoys their constant hum<\/p>\n
When wasps began streaming through a rusted gap in her office door one June morning, Eilish Rothney\u2019s first instinct was the same most people would have: get rid of them. The reserve manager for the Trinity Broads, part of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, had discovered a wasp colony taking up residence in her office, a converted shipping container.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just built the nest inside my door,\u201d she says. \u201cMy first thought was: \u2018Oh no, I have to get rid of that now.\u2019 But then I realised: \u2018Wait, why? Why do I have to do that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Two months on, Rothney is in a co-working arrangement with the nest, which is now more than a metre tall and swallows an entire bookshelf of ring binders. It has papered the inside of her office in what she calls \u201clovely layers of colours\u201d, with thousands of chewed wood pulp cells stacked like the world\u2019s strangest filing system.<\/p>\n
Rather than evict her new colleagues, Rothney adapted. She opened the window to give the wasps a clear flight path. \u201cI just stroll past like I\u2019m a browsing cow, calmly going about my day,\u201d she says. \u201cThe wasps were fine with me being there. The longer I was there, the more I felt relaxed being alongside them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The queen lays eggs continuously, while worker wasps forage and bring food back to feed the larvae. That, in turn, exudes a sugary liquid that the adult workers drink. Rothney describes a low purring sound rising off the nest, which she believes comes from thousands of wings beating to keep the colony cool. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like the colony in itself is a living organism,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
She says she isn\u2019t worried about being stung \u2013 \u201cit wouldn\u2019t be a whole lot worse than mosquito bites\u201d \u2013 and her advice for anyone less enthusiastic than her is: \u201cInsects learn that certain individuals won\u2019t harm them. Just keep calm, they will sense that and won\u2019t feel threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rothney traces her convictions about wildlife back to an ecology field trip at university, and to what she describes as \u201ca kind of poetry and beauty in understanding the intricate relationships between everything\u201d. She says she has become increasingly frustrated by how easily the label \u201cpest\u201d becomes a green light for extermination. \u201cIt\u2019s fair enough if people don\u2019t like wasps,\u201d she says, \u201cbut we need to move away from things just being killed out of convenience. We cause a lot of damage with that approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
She is quick to defend the wasps which interfere with picnics every August, too. By late summer, the larvae stop producing their sugary secretion, leaving the adult workers suddenly cut off from their main food source, she says. \u201cThe poor things are starving. It\u2019s not a battle between them and me. They\u2019re desperate. Let\u2019s provide them with that sugar and maybe draw them away from someone\u2019s real ale in the evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I want is for people to be more tolerant of wasps, and of nature generally. I\u2019m proud to be working where I am, and it\u2019s our 100th anniversary this year \u2013 so maybe the wasps are celebrating too!\u201d<\/p>\n
As the weather turns this autumn, Rothney says, the queen will stop laying, the males and worker wasps will die off, and next year\u2019s queens will leave to hibernate alone. By winter, the nest will be empty.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be sad when they leave. I do feel motherly towards them,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019ll be odd when they\u2019re gone, because even the noise itself is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
And when the nest is empty? \u201cI\u2019m going to try to take it apart very carefully when they leave so I can see what it looks like inside.\u201d<\/p>\n
Until then, the shelves belong to the wasps.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s invertebrate of the year again! From 3-12 August, every day we will profile one of the thousands of amazing invertebrates that our readers have nominated. And then, when you\u2019ve heard about all of them, we\u2019ll open the voting so you can choose your favourites. Don\u2019t hesitate to get in touch with thoughts and ideas: email us at environment.desk@theguardian.com with Invertebrate in the subject line.<\/p>\n