ll last summer, a steady stream of wasps were coming and going from the roof tiles below my bedroom window. By autumn there were probably at least five thousand wasps in there, but they caused no trouble, nobody was stung and I learned not to read with the light on and window open, or a few would wake up and fly in. The roof was in need of repair but we waited for the wasps to die naturally before booking the work. Lifting the tiles revealed an enormous nest 60cm (24in) across; the biggest our roofers had come across. I was surprised to read that we have 9000 wasp species in the UK, though most are tiny, solitary. In some areas, wasps are known as ‘jaspers’, possibly because of the stripy mineral jasper.
