Maria Lukyanenko/ article author
Identification of pests, work with insect cultures, micrograph of insects, bibliographic studies.

Wasps make honey or not

Wasps, like bees, belong to the same family. Adult individuals also eat nectar, pollinate flowers, so the question arises - do they make honey. In our area, no one has heard that they are raising a striped family for their own benefit. However, in countries of Africa and Central America, for some species, such an occupation is characteristic. Wasp honey differs from bee honey in quality, quantity, and beneficial properties.

Features of life

To find out if wasps make honey, you first need to figure out whether they need it. In most cases, we are talking about adults. Imago eat nectar, juices of ripe vegetables, fruits, but for larvae they get protein food - spiders, flies, small insects, bees.

Honey wasps prefer to eat, but not to do. Many families attack beehives, completely destroy stocks at one time, “prisoners” are dragged to feed their larvae. They don’t drag honey into the nest; therefore, there is no honey in its combs.

However, a small layer of sticky mass resembling a beekeeping product accumulates on the cell walls. The question again is wasps make honey or not. Insects do not load themselves with this mission, the plaque turns out on its own, after the insect is on the flower, feasts pollen.

Interesting!

In the countries of America, Africa there are several families public waspswho collect honey and make it. But not in such quantities as the usual bees, but only in order to feed themselves in the winter. To say that wasps do not make honey is also wrong.

Wasps and honey
Wasps and honey

Important is the fact that the wasps of our area do not winter in a swarm. At the end of summer they leave nestare scattered in different directions. With the onset of cold weather, the metabolic processes in the body slow down, insects become slow, vulnerable. One part dies from natural enemies, the other from cold. Remain to winter only young fertilized females, whose mission will continue in the spring. In winter, insects fall into suspended animation - they simply sleep, do not need food supplies.

Features of aspen honey

If a child of primary school age is asked a question - are honey made by bees or wasps, he will surely choose the first. This will be correct, because our wasps and honey are an incompatible concept. In tropical countries, the kids will respond differently, because local Aborigines even specifically destroy the hive for catching treats.

Honeybees of the Polybius Occidentalis species can produce, accumulate honey, and stock in honeycombs for the winter. However, they are not able to give in such a large amount as bees. They need a product so as not to die of hunger in the winter.

Wasp honey is thick, viscous, different in composition, but smells nice. Most of the composition is pollen. There are no useful enzymes in which mankind is accustomed to - a huge amount of proteins, sugars. It doesn’t taste as sweet as a bee. Breeding a hornet family for the sake of getting honey, it makes no sense. Only local Aborigines look for wasps, ravage nests, take their waste product.

Honeybees of the Polybius Occidentalis species
Honeybees of the Polybius Occidentalis species

Benefit

Insects do not produce honey, but are able to carry a lot benefit man their life.

An important role is played by the hornet family, destroying a huge number of harmful insects, with which a person is fighting a merciless one.If it is located in a corner of the garden, do not touch. Wasps kill flies, spiders, larvae, small insects, large insects. Freely cope with the bear, Khrushch and its larvae, bronzes.

Many solitary wasps lay eggs on the body of the larva of a large beetle, spider. A larva emerges from the egg for several hours, digs into the victim’s body, begins to eat it from the inside. In the end, pupates, after a while the imago comes to light in the form familiar to humans.

The benefits of wasps
The benefits of wasps

On a note!

The tiny wasp Spilomena troglodytes destroy thrips. Many other species catch caterpillars of leafworms, moths, bugs, leaf beetles, cicadas, flies, horseflies, weevils. Functions of a wasp even without honey are quite large - they pollinate plants and increase productivity.

Hornet poison and medicine

It’s much more interesting for people not honey, but poison. More recently, scientists have discovered properties Brazilian wasp venom stop the development of cancer cells, fight the oncology of certain organs. Important is the fact that the poison does not affect healthy cells, does not interfere with their functioning.

The poison of a Brazilian insect contains a unique protein that interacts exclusively with pathological cells, causes their death, and helps restore the mucous membrane. The poison is effective for cancer of the blood, prostate, bladder. The drug is sold through sites on the Internet, the cost of one capsule is about 9 thousand rubles.

Based on the data obtained, research continues to be conducted, there is great hope that it will be possible to create an effective cure for cancer, to defeat the disease in a broad sense.

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