Culture: Strange goings on at Lackford Lakes

Over the last few days, people have been noticing a very strange-looking visitor to the weaved willow fence outside the visitor centre. Looking slim and black with a narrowed waist and equipped with what can only be described as a large formidable looking weapon, the Ichneumon wasp looks like no other wasp and is just one of around 7,000 species of wasp in the UK.

It lacks the black and yellow stripes and the annoying buzz to begin with and in flight it resembles a wispy damselfly hanging on the breeze. Instead of being short and squat, it measures nearly 7cm in length and looks alien-like as it walks along the fence searching out its prey. These wasps do not make the conventional hive nest of its social cousins, but instead it lives a solitary life patrolling dead wood, smelling carefully with its long antenna for the familiar smell of Longhorn beetle larvae that are buried deep within the wood, munching contently to themselves.

Once the smell of the larvae has been located, the wasp raises her abdomen high up into the air and begins to drill her incredibly fine ovipositor deep into the wood, probing and feeling as she goes until she hits her mark, the developing beetle larvae. She then sends an egg down the ovipositor to lay on or in the larvae. This egg then hatches and, over a period of time, consumes the larvae in situ. Once consumed, the wasp larvae will then pupate and then awaits its turn to emerge next autumn to start the process all over again.

So, by removing pests from our environment, whether it be weevils or aphids from our gardens, or wood-boring beetles like those above, wasps have an important role to play in our ecosystems.

If you want to see these amazing wasps for yourself, then come on down to the visitor centre where our friendly staff will be happy to help show you. They will also help you to see other wildlife around our reserve such as the kingfisher, various types of ducks and much more that Lackford Lakes has to offer.