An army of parasitic wasps has been stationed within a stately British home to battle moths.
Within the English stately home where Anne Boleyn was born, an army of small, parasitic wasps will be released in order to search out and kill moths that endanger the furniture and objects of the mansion.
In Norfolk, eastern England, Blickling Hall was unable to contain an invasion of clothes moths that could damage the historic home's carpets, curtains, garments, and other wool and silk items.
But management assumes that as they add a variety of microscopic, parasitic wasps into the house, the critters will face their match.
The wasps weigh around 0.5 millimeters and are scarcely visible to humans—Trichogramma evanescens.
They'll hunt for moth eggs and lay their own eggs inside them, but instead of a moth larva, a new wasp hatches.
The wasps will finally die and vanish into house dust after their task is complete, say, property managers, who claim the pest control effort is the first of its kind inside a heritage environment.
The Trust, which manages the house, said that in small card dispensers that can be "discreetly hung or placed in drawers or open rooms." the wasps would be supplied.
In the 11th century Domesday Book, the oldest public document in Britain, Blickling Hall was mentioned and was later owned by Geoffrey Boleyn.
It is assumed his granddaughter, Anne Boleyn, was born at home. She went on to become the ill-fated second wife of Henry VIII, giving birth to the future Queen Elizabeth I and eventually being put to death by beheading after failing to give a son to the king.
It accepts tourists now but is closed during the third national coronavirus lockdown in England.
We knew that insects would probably thrive when we closed all our homes, so pest monitoring was high on our list of essential tasks in 2020,"When we closed all of our houses, we knew insects would likely thrive, so pest monitoring was high on our list of essential tasks in 2020,"
