It was an act of brutality against innocent creatures going about their ordinary lives.
It was not particularly friendly to the environment, since it involved a gallon of paraffin(kerosene).
But it had to be done, Mangetout had been pushed to the absolute limit of endurance.
OK, there was a wasp(yellowjacket) nest in the compost heap at my allotment and I couldn’t pick my gooseberries (which are a few yards away) without them attacking me (they want the gooseberries too, you see), so I torched the nest.
I would have sprayed it with insecticidal foam, but there was long grass in the way and all I could see was the entrance hole to their nest, the fire burned away one side of the compost heap, revealing an irregular shaped papery nest structure something like two feet wide by one foot deep. An enormous cloud (I estimate 300 or so) of wasps (presumably individuals which were out foraging when I lit the fire) congregated in the vicinity, acting about as pissed off as it’s possible for wasps to get. It must have been a BIG colony.
But no stings this time (last time I tacked what I thought was a dead nest, the little stripy bastards swarmed out and stung me severely all over).
Tomorrow I will go back and give it the foam anyway, just in case.
