Wasp in the house
A wasp indoors in late winter is most often a queen that slept in the walls or the attic and was woken too early by indoor warmth. Her false spring has human versions too.
What it may mean
In late summer, wasp colonies raise new queens, and when the cold comes, the workers and the old queen die. Only the young mated queens survive, tucked into attics, wall gaps and window frames until spring. A warm house can wake one in January or February. She crawls toward the light, slow and confused, months before there is anything outdoors to eat or build with. It is a false spring made by the furnace. People have their own versions: a burst of energy after a bonus, a romance that feels like summer in midwinter, a project started in a rush before the conditions are there. The trick is telling seasonal warmth from thermostat warmth before you commit to anything. Some old beliefs read the first wasp of the year as a signal to act.
Depending on how you saw it
A slow wasp on the windowsill in fall
In October, a wasp walking slowly on the sill is most likely a worker in its last days, the colony already breaking up. It has nowhere left to go. What part of an old project are you still tending after the season has ended?
A queen at the window in late winter
A big wasp tapping at a window in February has woken early from its winter rest in your walls. Releasing it outside on a cold day rarely saves it, and the timing is the problem, not the insect. Which of your plans woke too soon, and could it go back to sleep for a while?
Wasps in the kitchen in late summer
By August, wasps crowd around fruit, jam and sweet drinks, and they find open doors and windows quickly. Covering food is the simplest fix. What keeps drawing intruders into your space that you could simply put a lid on?
A wasp landing on you
A wasp landing on your arm is often tasting salt or resting. Swatting is what provokes a sting; staying still or stepping slowly away ends most encounters. When did doing less, rather than more, settle a tense situation for you?
Why it happens in nature
Social wasps such as paper wasps and yellowjackets build annual colonies. In late summer or fall the workers and old queen die, and only newly mated queens overwinter in sheltered places, including attics and wall voids. Warm spells or indoor heating can wake them early, and they head for windows and light.
What folk beliefs say
Northamptonshire, England
In Northamptonshire, people said the first wasp of the season should be killed promptly, as doing so secured good fortune and freedom.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 715. View the page
England and the United States
An English superstition, also found in the United States, held that if you killed the first wasp you saw in the season, you would conquer all your enemies and prosper for a year.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 715. View the page
Ancient Italy (Capua)
An old account repeated by Topsell told that a great swarm of wasps flew into the market of Capua and settled in the temple of Mars, foreshadowing the coming of an enemy and the burning of the city.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 715. View the page
To reflect on
Is the warmth you feel right now coming from the season or from the thermostat?