Inside the nest, the first indication of trouble was the vibration of footsteps overhead. Guard wasps, only lightly asleep even at night, swarmed from the entrance hole to repel the attacker. Although primarily diurnal, wasps could see passably well at night. They erupted from the nest, incensed that their young royals should be threatened on the eve of their nuptials. Superbly confident as always, they didn’t know that their luck was about to run out.
In the first seconds of the attack, the red light from Beth’s torch deceived their senses, giving them no indication of the direction in which the danger lay. Instantly, they faced an onslaught of toxic mist. The chemicals’ effect on the wasps was akin to that of a nerve gas attack on humans. The guard wasps first experienced a deterioratio
