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.