There's a wasp in my fig

[bigtree]

All kinds of critters, not only humans, frequent fig trees, but the plants owe their existence to what may be evolution’s most intimate partnership between two species. Because a fig is actually a ball of flowers, it requires pollination to reproduce, but, because the flowers are sealed, not just any bug can crawl inside. That task belongs to a minuscule insect known as the fig wasp, whose life cycle is intertwined with the fig’s. Mother wasps lay their eggs in an unripe fig. After their offspring hatch and mature, the males mate and then chew a tunnel to the surface, dying when their task is complete. The females follow and take flight, riding the winds until they smell another fig tree. (One species of wasp, in Africa, travels ten times farther than any other known pollinator.) When the insects discover the right specimen, they go inside and deposit the pollen from their birthplace. Then the females lay new eggs, and the cycle begins again. For the wasp mother, however, devotion to the fig plant soon turns tragic. A fig’s entranceway is booby-trapped to destroy her wings, so that she can never visit another plant. When you eat a dried fig, you’re probably chewing fig-wasp mummies, too.

https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/love-the-fig

[BComplex]

1. We have a huge fig bush. I put up fig compote and dry figs every year.

This really didn't help.

[NJCher]

2. Lol

Similar thoughts here. We have figs a lot when they are in season.

[BComplex]

3. We would put some prosciutto and goat cheese on halved figs and grill 'em

in the toaster oven. I think I'd rather have my dead female wasps grilled from now on.

[GreenWave]

4. Figs secret on display!

When ants dare climb the fig tree, they are devoured by???

[Farmer-Rick]

5. I have a 5 year old fig bush/tree volunteer

The thing just started growing in a hole left behind by a stump. You know it's a fig by the shape of its leaves and the delicious figgy aroma the whole tree gives off in summer. My fig bush has many stalks coming up from the root. Because of our hard winters, the stalks are killed off every winter and grow back in spring.

The stalks are getting these fig shaped nodules in September on the top that never develop into edible fruit. Each year the nodules get a bit bigger. I keep hoping they will eventually ripen but I bet I am missing that wasp.

There are some figs that don't need the wasp and are self pollinating. It depends on your variety. I wonder if I can buy that wasp?

[SouthernDem4ever]

6. Fig Jam, my favorite at Christmas

Have known about the wasps for a long time lol

[3catwoman3]

7. I already didn't like figs.

Now I REALLY don’t like them. Yuck!