Living in Cyprus: The Mysterious Buzz

Tom Kane
Tom Kane
Jul 27, 2017 · 2 min read
image of a Cyprus mud wasp
image of a Cyprus mud wasp

Ever heard something, something almost inaudible, but something definitely there. It’s a noise so at the periphery of your perception, you at first don’t even notice it’s there.

That’s been happening to me so much that I’ve even asked my wife if she can hear an intermittent buzz. She could not.

So for what must be a couple of weeks this buzz has come and it’s gone. Until one day the buzz flew directly in front of me.

I was sat in my office, at my desk, as I am now, typing on my keyboard and looking up at what I type. That was when I saw the source of my mysterious buzz. A black and yellow mud wasp. At an inch in length, that’s 3cm roughly, these little insects look formidably dangerous and could easily inflict a nasty sting. But nothing could be further from the truth if you are human. There is only one reason these females invade your home, to build a nest.

Mud wasps, sometimes known as potter wasps, are fabulous engineers with mud. Their sole purpose in life is to mate and then lay a single egg in a nest they build with mud. My particular wasp seems to have spent a week or more buzzing back and forth from outside to my office where it’s building its nest. The wasp carries a tiny mouthful of mud that it salivates on and then uses that to build its nest.

Once she has created the basic structure and laid her egg, she then spends days bolstering the structure until it’s just right. But what she has put in her nest gives this story a distinct Gothic feel.

Her egg sits nicely in the fantastic nest she has built, safe and sound. But when it hatches, the little grub is going to be peckish. So Mamma wasp has prepared a small snack for junior. Once she lays the egg and before she seals it in, she goes out and finds small spiders, or beetles or caterpillars — then she attacks them by stabbing them and injecting a toxin that paralyses, but does not kill her prey. She then flies back to the nest, carrying her hapless victim, and stuffs it in the nest. Once she’s happy junior has enough to munch on, she seals the nest and that is that, job done.

My particular wasp has created a double nest, with one sealed and the other open. No doubt she will be back later to fill the vacant one. Shivers down your spine? Me too.

Tom Kane © 2017
My Website
Follow me on Blogarama
Subscribe to Tom Kane’s Blog by Email

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade