I took this photo because I was bored while staking out my Turk’s Cap for Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. This is one of many wasps that I have seen around my house. Recently, the pest control service came to my house. The only way to keep the peace in my household was to allow the pest control service to treat the inside of the house and fire ants…and wasps. The wasps were a battle – I wanted to leave their nests under the eves and attached to patio covers. After all, wasps have their place in the web of life, right?

For example, look at this wasp, harmlessly dining on nectar from the Turk’s Cap.

The sticking point in the debate was about the dogs – what if they got stung? I boasted about working in the gardens all of the time, amongst wasps and bees and never being stung. “I mind my own business and they mind theirs!” In the end, and in the spirit of keeping the peace, I agreed to have the wasp nests removed.

The surviving, homeless wasps apparently got pretty mad. One of them stung my dog this evening! She had an allergic reaction which resulted in a late-night trip to the emergency veterinary clinic. A couple of shots and she was feeling better, and she will be taking antihistamines for the next couple of days.

So now I am wondering…would it have been better to leave the wasps and their nests undisturbed? Should I use this incident to plead my case next time? I have to admit, I’m a teensy bit leery of the wasps now, especially for my dog. Maybe it’ll go the other way, and we’ll have the pest control out here again.

It is easy to say, when something in nature seems harsh or brutal “Well, its the web of life.” And usually I find myself saying this sort of thing at the notion of a hawk catching a mouse or another bird. But when the unpleasant parts of the “web of life” touch you directly…how do you feel then? This is just a little story, but what about when the stakes are higher? Do you scold the hunter, or thank him – for not allowing game animals to multiply so that they starve? Do you support clean energy sources, like wind – or grumble about the number of birds that may be killed by the turbines? Or do you support domestic drilling, even in national wildlife refuges and offshore – if there are new methods that promise to do so in an environmentally friendly way. The answers get harder when we humans are included in that web of life.

I certainly don’t have the answers to the big questions, but I CAN say, unequivocally, that NOBODY hurts my dog!

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