World of the Bizarre

'Drunk and irritable' wasps descend on the UK

By T.K. Randall
August 14, 2018 ·  16 comments

British wasps have been at the booze. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.5 Richard Bartz The insects resort to these foodstuffs when they can no longer feed on their conventional diet of flies and 'sugar-rich spit' from the queen's larvae - something that typically happens in mid to late August.

Fruit that has rotted and fermented makes for an ideal alternative, as does leftover cider in pub gardens. Sadly however, the insects can become rather agitated after ingesting alcohol.

"They are really aggressive at this time of year," said pest control expert Shane Jones. "And because of the cold winter, the wasp season started about six weeks earlier.""Wasps have built absolutely massive nests and, now that all the larvae have grown up and the queen has stopped laying eggs, the colonies have a workforce with nothing to do - and nothing to eat. So they go down to the pub, obviously."

"Wasps can't handle their booze, so they get tanked-up and fighty - like lager louts."

Suffice to say, it would be best to keep a fair distance.

Source: AOL News | Comments (16)

Tags: Wasp