It was our summer holiday and we had rented a cabin in a pine forest in the Irish countryside. There was a queue of cars to check in, so we waited with windows down, enjoying the fresh country air. Suddenly there was a ruckus in the back of the car, a wasp had lunged at my son's ice cream. When the wasp fled our wild thrashing, my son asked why wasps attack at the end of the summer. I had never thought about it before, but we decided to find out. Our ‘cabin research’ revealed the answer lies in the fascinating life cycle of the wasp colony. I also uncovered a great analogy for purpose and vision.
In spring, a fertilised queen emerges from hibernation and looks for food. Insect skeletons are made from chitin, a material made from tightly bound sugars. To sustain chitin, she needs sweet liquids that contain high-energy sugars. At this stage of life, queen wasps get their sugar from flowers and by licking the sugar water from bees. This behaviour changes after she builds a nest and lays eggs. As many working parents know, you are often so busy tending to the needs of your infants that you don't have time to look after yourself. The queen wasp is no different. She is so busy building the colony and hunting food for her larvae that she doesn't have time to ...
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