Hanging .......

Oh this little wasp was hanging ......he does look in such a bad way! Every picture tells a story..... Alka-Seltza comes to mind!

The wasps had discovered the fruit fallen on the floor in the garden and there was one particular apple that was a wasp magnet. Lying down next to it was a revelation!

Packed under the skin of the apple there must have been over two dozen wasps which were all flying in and out at regular intervals & you had to sit and watch intently to see what was going on. At first you just thought it was a feeding frenzy: wasps quickly going to gorge themselves on the fruit. In some cases this was possibly true but a lot of work was going on under the skin.

With their strong mandibles they were chewing away the hard outer skin of the apple, getting in there and cutting chunks out of the flesh and balling it up. This was then taken by mouth , to outside and put into a pile . some balls were quite large . Having done all this work the balls rarely, if ever were picked up and moved but quite a few wasps flew off with apple balls in their mouths.

Other wasps like my friend here didn't have any food with them but were just drunk on the apple juice. They teetered out of the apple, wobbled, took a few steps, tried to fly - couldn't and wandered on into the grass in a bad way clambering up the grass stalks. This chap was 'hanging' utterly intoxicated! Eventually he managed to fly off but I bet it wasn't in a straight line!

Flying whilst under the influence........