After the heavy rains of Monday night (the first in nearly 3 weeks), I decided that it may be a good idea to sprinkle a few slug pellets around the 3 nicely developing pumpkins that had taken hold in the veg patch as a precautionary measure. That's when I remembered that I had put the slug pellets in the shed during term to keep them safely out of reach of the younger pupils
This wasn't a problem seeings how I had the key and so I unlocked the door, opened it and then ran!!!!!!! Unbeknownst to me, a wasp colony had set up camp in the shed and had built themselves a nice not so little house on the framework of one of the collapsable wheelbarrows
A welcoming party of some 2 dozen wasps encouraged me to make a hasty retreat and dozens more flitted about making their displeasure at my intrusion very clear 
After letting them calm down for a few minutes, I was able to dash back and get the door shut and the bolt home before another squadron of wasps appeared. Another short wait and I got the padlock in place and a few minutes after that I was able to lock the padlock which, thankfully, for once decided not to be tricky and locked first time.
Once home, a quick phonecall and a strong coffee later and the pest control man was booked. I've often found it hard to find a valid reason for wasps but I had believed that they are effective predators for various pests in the garden and so tolerate them (but not nests of them) for the sake of my veg. However, the pest man says this isn't so. He says that the only thing a wasp does is eat fallen, rotting fruit and deal with the odd insect and they serve no other purpose. One of the vagories of Ma Nature I suppose
VPM
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