When they buzz uninvited to our breakfast or coffee table on the patio, wasps' culinary preferences seem clear - but apart from ours, the striped insects have other food sources as well.
Wasps like both savory and sweet things
Different food for big and small
Unlike humans, wasps get a completely different diet when they are young than they eat when they are adults. This is because the larvae need a lot of protein for their development in the pupa. As an adult animal, a lot of carbohydrates in the form of sugar are needed to cover the energy requirement.
In nature, the wasp usually finds a set table for itself and its offspring. Worker bees primarily feast on nectar-bearing flowers and sweet plant juices. Due to their mouthparts, which are less geared towards collecting pollen, they can only get nectar from more easily accessible flowers, such as those of ivy, figwort and marsh root, alder buckthorn or umbelliferous plants. They get plant juices from trees with damaged bark.
The excretions of aphids, so-called honeydew, are also part of the diet of adult wasps.
The adults hunt insects for their larvae and feed them in the form of chewed pulp.
Wasp menu in brief:
- Adult animals: flower nectar, sweet plant juices, honeydew
- Larvae: chewed, proteinaceous insect pulp
Food stolen from our tables
The wasps that we see in everyday summer life are of course only adult animals. With the nutritional knowledge outlined above, one could now ask the question: Why then do the black and yellow insects not only pounce on the sweet treats on the breakfast or coffee table, such as jam and icing cakes, but also on savory foods such as ham, grilled meat and egg salad ? Well, they have to take care of their offspring after all. And they not only hunt insects, but also enrich the baby food with protein-rich food from our patio tables.
As everyone has probably already experienced, the animals are extremely determined and therefore difficult to drive away. However, you should avoid waving your hands around as much as possible. This makes the wasps aggressive and stinging - which they are not by themselves.
To get rid of the annoying pests during the meal, however, you can take advantage of their fondness for sweets that are easy to reach: For example, set out a small bowl with sugar water or a dollop of jam. If a wasp settles on it, you can slowly put a glass over the bowl. After you have finished eating in peace and the table is cleared, you can free the wasp again.
This gives you peace of mind without unnecessarily tormenting the insect, which is certainly the case with many commercially available wasp traps. Often the wasp under the glass doesn't panic at all, but takes advantage of the treats offered despite being in captivity.