What wasps eat: feeding habits of larvae and adults
In the warm season, people often go on picnics and encounter various types of insects there. It is wasps that very often disturb the peace of vacationers, because they strive to sit down on fruits, meat or other products that are in the public domain. At first glance, it may seem that these insects are omnivorous and not at all picky in the choice of food, but in reality this is not at all the case.
What does the diet of
Indeed, unlike bees, the diet of wasps is much more diverse, and they eat almost any food. However, the food preferences of these insects are directly dependent on the stage of their development.
The nutrition of adults and wasp larvae is very different.
Scientists explain this by the fact that food competition between individuals of the same species at different stages of development is thus excluded. In addition, as you know, wasp larvae are not able to find food on their own and therefore they are fed by adults.
What do wasp larvae eat?
At the larval stage, insects of this species feed mainly on food of animal origin. Adult wasps bring the remains of animal meat found for young offspring or independently kill various insects for them. The diet of wasp larvae contains:
- animal meat;
- a fish;
- slugs;
- butterflies;
- cockroaches;
- spiders;
- Bugs;
- caterpillars.
What do adult wasps eat?
The digestive system of adult wasps in most species is not capable of digesting solid food. The basis of their diet is the juice and pulp of various fruit crops.
They are happy to eat even berries and fruits that have fallen from trees. If we are talking about plums or grapes, then after a meal, a wasp flock leaves nothing but fruit peels.
In addition to sweet berries, adult wasps are also not averse to eating some foods from the human table, for example:
- sugar;
Wasps are lovers of sweets.
- honey and various sweets based on it;
- jam, jam and marmalade from various fruits and berries;
- sweet syrups.
Conclusion
The nature of our world is simply amazing, and things that at first glance seem strange and incomprehensible, in fact, always have a special purpose. Most likely, if adult wasps were food competitors of their own larvae, then this insect species would have died out long ago.
