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Should i feed wasps?

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  • 29-08-2020 5:53pm
    #1
    seefin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,079 ✭✭✭


    Came across an article that said wasps are starving in autumn. Being the bleeding heart i am, i want to put out some food for them . Just some sugar in a bowl?


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    #2
    auspicious
    Registered Users Posts: 4,497 ✭✭✭auspicious


    I've a Fuchsia tree at bottom of garden planted from pot last year and they love it.


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    #3
    upupup
    Registered Users Posts: 605 ✭✭✭upupup


    seefin wrote: »
    Came across an article that said wasps are starving in autumn. Being the bleeding heart i am, i want to put out some food for them . Just some sugar in a bowl?

    They love ripe pears,amazing to see so many eating and put it at the bottom of your garden which will draw them away from your house.
    make sure to cut it in half


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    #4
    Tiercel Dave
    Registered Users Posts: 797 ✭✭✭Tiercel Dave


    They'll all be dead come winter except for a few Queens. Anyhow, I let them nibble away at some apples and plums still on the trees, after all they probably had a 'hand' in pollinating them in the springtime.....


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    #5
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,326 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    the reason they're hungry is that their hive is shutting down; yes, you can feed them, but they've nothing to do except die off before the winter anyway.


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    #6
    s1ippy
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,980 ✭✭✭s1ippy


    Don't worry, we're feeding every wasp in the country or so it seems. We have an apple tree and trying to actually get the apples from it is a serious risk to life because there are swarms of them all over it. We collected the bulk of them one night last week because there are less of them there then. Got itchy bites on our legs from insect bites all the same though :D

    Earlier on, I opened the lid on the box of apples I'd collected this morning to get one out and a wasp flew into my face. When I got him outside I realised that he'd been hiding inside one of the apples, there was a fairly wide tunnel behind the tiny opening.

    Here are the same wasps in the meadow (ft butterflies). They're grand.

    524741.jpg


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    #7
    seefin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,079 ✭✭✭seefin


    Thanks for the advice. Put out the last apple in the house this morning and there were 3 wasps on it half hour later. Feel happy now, making their last weeks on earth less miserable:-)


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    #8
    deise08
    Registered Users Posts: 3,330 ✭✭✭deise08


    They're amazing to watch. Threw out a few dates for them.. They were covered in minutes. Also jam jars before cleaning for the bottle bank. Actually, there's no cleaning on them once the wasps have finished..
    Also fabulous to watch them dissecting up pieces of cooked turkey/chicken and carrying them off.


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    #9
    seefin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,079 ✭✭✭seefin


    deise08 wrote: »
    They're amazing to watch. Threw out a few dates for them.. They were covered in minutes. Also jam jars before cleaning for the bottle bank. Actually, there's no cleaning on them once the wasps have finished..
    Also fabulous to watch them dissecting up pieces of cooked turkey/chicken and carrying them off.
    Yeah was amazing. I took the apples in at night to avoid rodents- i shooed the wasps away and they just crawled away, seemed very weak - it seemed as if the apple was their last meal :-(


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    #10
    Graces7
    Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    When I was trading ( including home made jam) at street markets, the wasps at this season would flock in and it was bad for business!

    I saw every version of " the wasp dance.." YOU know.

    So I opened one small jar, put it to the side. for them. It used to fascinate customers.

    Nothing should die hungry.


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    #11
    feargale
    Registered Users Posts: 8,636 ✭✭✭feargale


    I once read that the wasp is the rat of the insect world. Isn't he more closely related to ants than the honeybee?


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