"rehn" wrote in message
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On Jul 11, 1:41 pm, "Mary Fisher" wrote:
"rehn" wrote in message

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I general, try to kill as many wasps as possible, it is the homeless

wasps that are most annoying and and looking for sweets.

That's not true, you don't understand the life cycle of wasps.

Mary

If so, please educate me, or at least gime a pointer to where I can
read about the life cycle of wasps.

It's complex but the relevant part is that adult social wasps don't need
protein, they're fully formed, they need energy - sugar. The larvae need
protein, they grow at a fantastic rate.

Adult wasps forage for protein in the form of meat (social bees' protein is
pollen). They will take living insects, carve neat chunks out of living
caterpillars (I've watched it), from your meat sandwich or pork pie (I've
watched that too and taken pictures) or dead animals. This is taken back
swiftly to the nest where it is fed to the larvae.

And this is the beautiful bit - in return a larva will secrete a sugary
solution which the adult will ingest.

So the adults take meat only to have a sweet reward.

Towards the end of the season the queen doesn't lay as many eggs so there
are fewer larvae to feed and there are very many more adults, far too many
to get enough sugar from the diminishing brood.

THAT'S when the adults begin to look for sugar for themselves. They're not
homeless, just hungry.

I hope that's enough,

Mary