There is an underground wasps' nest in a flowerbed in my garden, close to a paved area. On October 1st, I noticed a number of the wasps working their way across the paving, each clutching a white object under them, about a centimetre long and 2mm in diameter, which I took to be larvae. Eventually, I saw one wasp rise straight out of the nest entrance, carrying a larva, and flying away. Is this their way of setting up next year's nests in diverse locations?
Martin Crotty, Blackrock, Co Louth
I can't work out why the wasps were taking out the larvae at this point in the season, but it was not the sort of dispersal you suggest. The queen wasps hatched in this year's nest have mated and departed, each to hibernate in some crevice. The rest of the wasps are dying as autumn progresses, while the queens which survive the winter will start making new nests next year.
LAST month, in a group of walkers, I saw a badger at 750 metres in a boggy area of the Wicklow Mountains. Is this unusual?
David Herman, Meadow Grove, Dublin
A very small number of badgers manage to scrape a living on the mountains, and individual setts can be found even on the slopes of Lugnaquillia.
On the summit of Derrybawn Mountain in Glendalough during the summer, among the peat-hags and small pools of dark brown water, I came across a frog that appeared to be black in colour. When I washed it, it still seemed to be a very dark brown. All the frogs I've ever seen have been some variation of yellow and green, but this one certainly had a near-perfect camouflage.
David F. Nolan, Santry, Dublin 9
The late Frank Mitchell was similarly intrigued by a "black" frog he saw in a bog on Valentia island. Colour can certainly help camouflage and one might expect peatland frogs to be specially dark by selection. Yet frog colour is very variable, and females, in particular, may even be red or orange!
Edited by Michael Viney, who welcomes observations sent to him at Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, Westport, Co Mayo.
E-mail: viney@anu.ie E-mail should include a postal address.