Raiders of the ripened fruit

Insects have a way of finding sources of richly festering sweetness such as ripe fruit.

Readers may recall my ‘artificial apple trees’ for the birds.

These have low-cost apples pegged out for the blue tits, great tits, blackbirds, starlings and, yes, parakeets.

The birds love them and they are a relatively cheap bird-food.

However, by the late summer the fruit ripens rather quickly and the insects discover them – especially hoverflies and other dipteran flies.

However, problems can arise on hot, humid days – remember those? – when the local wasps find this rich source of easy food, but resent being disturbed while feeding.

A little like Ray’s bee going into the plum, you end up with just an empty husk and the rest is cleaned out by the wasps.

However, everything has its place and, of course, while the wasps may be a nuisance, they do help to keep down some of the pest species.

Ripening fruit colonised by wild yeasts can ferment to produce alcohol – drunken wasps I wonder?

Prof Ian D Rotherham, a researcher, writer and broadcaster on wildlife and environmental issues, is contactable on [email protected].

Follow his Walk on the Wildside blog at ukeconet.org

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