Country diary: Hornets and wasps are welcome here | Nicola Chester

Inkpen, Berkshire: They're in the apple trees and nesting in the loft. But as the pest control man says, 'If you can live with them, do'The apple harvest from our two trees, one rosy, one green, is carried out with great care and respect for the wasps and hornets that share it. My daughter twists off a lollipop-red discovery that nestles against its half-scooped-out neighbour and the hornet inside. More docile than wasps, the caramel-and-amber hornet carries off a piece of apple the size of a plump grain of wheat in its jaws, its yellow rump glowing across the field beyond.The rich, cidery smell and buzz are a sensory pause to anyone coming through the garden gate. Beneath the trees, windfalls thump and send brief flotillas of thistledown and insects into the air. A single peacock butterfly snaps its wings possessively over a pulpy green russet. We carefully fill baskets. One wasp-hollowed apple holds an entire rugby-striped scrumping scrum of 12. The skins of finished apples curve like discarded sweet wrappers. Continue reading...