Today’s interesting fact has to do with wasps.

Many people get upset by wasps, some positively freak out.

But until the wasp larvae grow up, wasps provide a valuable service, especially in our vegetable gardens and farms, as they are predators who hunt those insects that damage our crops.

Until the wasp larvae have matured, the adult hunters go out and find many of the caterpillars and adult insects for the wasp grubs.

Adult wasps do not become attracted to our picnics until later in the summer.

This is because the wasp larvae act as secondary stomachs for the adult hunter wasps that do not have the metabolic ability to digest proteins.

Adults feed the larvae protein rich insects and carrion and the larvae then regurgitate pre-digested meals for the adult wasps.

It is only after the last generation of wasps in the nest which includes all the drones and queen larvae have gone to pupation in the last days of the nest, the hunter wasps then turn to finding more sugary foods to feed themselves.

At this point go after fallen fruit, our sugary drinks and our picnic baskets and therefore become pests to us.

Today’s interesting fact has to do with Entomophagy, or the consumption of insects as food.

Over 1,000 insects are known to be eaten in 80% of the world.

Insect eating is now rare in the 'developed' world, but insects remain a popular food in many 'developing' regions,

There have been some studies that have suggested that most of the protein our ancestors ate came from insects, with the extra protein coming from small birds, fish, lizards, snakes and small mammals.

Insects are a good source of protein, vitamins, minerals, and fats.

More importantly, the fats from insects are the mainly the coveted Omega 3 oils we are so encouraged to consume.

Free range chickens have higher Omega 3 oil in their meat and eggs, simply because they are able to consume any insects in their paddocks.

There are individuals and organisations who are suggesting we can fulfil all our dietary protein needs much easier, cheaper and with less impact on the environment, by switching from meat animals to various insects.

Today's interesting fact has to do with Termites.

For a long time entomologists argued over where on the tree of life termites came from.

It was often argued that termites were realted to or even desended from a type of cockroach.

Cockroaches and termites share a few common elements, but then so do most insects.

One thing they share is the Fat Body, a white mass that fills much of the abdomen of many insects.

The Fat Body has two types of cells, adipocytes filled with fat gobules and mycetocytes, which are filled with mutualistic bacteria.

Many insects, if you kill these bacteria, can continue to live and will eventually replace their bacteria.

But with cockroaches, if you kill the bacteria, the cockroaches and termites will usually die.

It seems that the bacteria in both insects are almost the same, closely related species.

When until they genetically sequenced the insects and compared them, it was shown that termites are actualy a type of cockroach, desendents of a type of wood eating cockroach.