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Some time ago I discovered
that wasps aren't unintelligent, so far as insects go.I didn't
think that you could necessarily reason with them, but calm
and predictable behaviour on my part seemed to induce calm and
predictable behaviour in them. What you should remember is that
the wasp has far more reason to be scared of you than you have
of it. So far as the wasp is concerned, you are an entirely
unpredictable pile of fast moving meat the equivalent of several miles high.
Someone said to me that wasps are evil. This is rubbish.
What wasps are is wasps. They don't set off terrorist bombs,
start wars, or kill children. They are a miracle of miniature
engineering and except by accident, they get on with their
waspy lives without bothering us.
I have therefore adopted the following method of dealing
with wasps that come close to me. As you'll guess, I never
swat them, or try to kill them. Killing things to suit yourself
is bad for your karma.
If the wasp is in flight, I open the nearest window or door,
and wait until the wasp is between me and the opening. I then
raise both hands, and shepherd the wasp out by gently moving
the palms of my hands towards it. Wasps try to avoid the hands
and leave via the opening. I also talk softly to the wasp,
which has more to do with making me calm than the wasp. At
least, no wasp has ever replied. If the wasp has landed somewhere,
I catch it in an inverted cup with a piece of card and return
it to the wild.
Anyway, regularly demonstrating this gave me a reputation
for handling wasps such that recently when at the Baccapipes
folk club a large wasp appeared, Lucy Moon said "Hey
Jim, what we need here is a wasp-whisperer!". I laughed
and looked at the wasp, but it was way up by the light-fitting
and entirely out of range. I imagined what a "wasp whisperer"
might do, mentally shooing it to the window, but only as a
little internal joke, and quickly forgot about it. Five minutes
later Molly Binns said to me "Sit still!". - Out of
all the people in the room that wasp had chosen to land on
my chest, from where I was able to take it outside and release
it.
"Did you kill it?" they asked....
This article was noticed here, and republished in "Insight" the
Journal of the Theosophical Society in England (Summer 2007) as an example of the
way humanity should value the life of its companions on the planet.
The Wasp
When the ripe pears droop heavily,
The yellow wasp hums loud and long,
His hot and drowsy autumn song.
A yellow flame he seems to be,
When darting suddenly from high,
He lights where fallen peaches lie.
Yellow and black - this tiny thing's,
A tiger-soul on elfin wings.
WILLIAM SHARP (1856-1905)
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