The Mighty Huntress

I had a wasp show up in my office yesterday afternoon. One of what is called (depending on who you ask) a "red wasp" or a "mahogany wasp." They're a fairly aggressive species and they have a nasty sting.

I'm not really allergic to bee stings (though it's been years since I have been stung, so I don't know if my reaction would be worse than the last time I was stung), but I do swell a lot.

And I just don't like having a wasp in my office (I don't like them in the classroom either). Wasps distract me, partly because I want to know where they are (so I know that they're not going to fall down and land on my neck, or that I'm going to lean on one) and also the sound of them batting against the ceiling tiles is just annoying.

So, when it showed up yesterday, I just decided to bail - it was 4:30 anyway. I hoped it would either die overnight or find an opening it could leave through. (I also harbored a secret fear that maybe it represented a nest that was somewhere up in the drop ceiling, and that I'd come in this morning to an office full of wasps).

It was not to be seen when I came in, so I figured it had left.

Then it showed back up. So I did what any good ecologist does: I walked down to my teaching-lab prep room and got a sweep net, with the intention of netting the wasp and either killing it or persuading it to go outside.

When I came back, the wasp was gone again. I figured it had flown out the door, but I left the net in my office. About fifteen minutes later, it flew up from behind my computer monitor. (I screamed - not quite like a little girl, I don't scream like a little girl, but I did scream and roll back in my chair). Grabbed the net and managed to get the wasp. The best I could do was swoop it out my office door - it escaped from the net before I could get to the door outside - but at least now it has gone from my office.