FYI they are very fucking small nowhere near as big as in this image. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fig_wasp
Forcing her way through the ostiole, the mated mature female often loses her wings and most of her antennae. To facilitate her passage through the ostiole, the underside of the female’s head is covered with short spines that provide purchase on the walls of the ostiole.
In depositing her eggs, the female also deposits pollen she picked up from her original host fig. This pollinates some of the female flowers on the inside surface of the fig and allows them to mature. After the female wasp lays her eggs and follows through with pollination, she dies.[15]
After pollination, there are several species of non-pollinating wasps that deposit their eggs before the figs harden. These wasps act as parasites to either the fig or possibly the pollinating wasps.
As the fig develops, the wasp eggs hatch and develop into larvae. After going through the pupal stage, the mature male’s first act is to mate with a female - before the female hatches. Consequently, the female will emerge pregnant. The males of many species lack wings and cannot survive outside the fig for a sustained period of time. After mating, a male wasp begins to dig out of the fig, creating a tunnel through which the females escape.[16]
Once out of the fig, the male wasps quickly die. The females find their way out, picking up pollen as they do. They then fly to another tree of the same species, where they deposit their eggs and allow the cycle to begin again.
Nature is so fucking WEEEEIRD
Actually it’s not. This is 100% human fault. Fig trees and fig wasps from the same (natural) area do not have this problem. When (I believe California?) imported a ton of trees and wasps to cultivate giant fig farms, they just didn’t care that the wasps they got would die during pollination. It was a known issue, that just got ignored. Completely preventable.
Nature is not weird? What that person described is not weird? It’s weird. You cannot convince me nature is not weird. Because nature is so fucking WEEEEEEIRDDDD
Fair
You’re just plain wrong. Figs and fig wasps have been coevolving for millions of years, and this is just how these species of fig and wasp evolved. Lots of animals have evolved to die after they reproduce. This is nature and has nothing to do with commercial fig growers
What problem do you mean?
The blastophaga psenes wasps in Turkey die during pollination just like the blastophaga psenes wasps in California do.
Here is more information about how figs (and fig wasps) came to be cultivated in the US.
Is this a joke???
I went and looked that up on my own and I could’ve just clicked into the comments?!
When i came to the post there were no comments to quell my worries so i had to check and share what i found :D
10/10 would read again!
If you look at the detail in the ghosty wasp, it’s clear that it’s just an edited image of a wasp pasted onto a fig
I wonder where they got that image from…
The first result for a fig wasp in a search engine? Nah, that’d be too obvious!
nowhere as big as in this image
Yeah when they’re alive, but everyone knows you grow larger when you become a ghost
This is interesting. Regarding a sentence:
Allow them to mature
Does it mean the figs cannot mature without the wasp ? Does it mean that each ripe fig has been visited by a wasp ?
Yes exactly. They are both dependent on each other in that way.
And to add on to that, figs are super important food trees in the tropics, because they are the only trees that produce fruits all year around. (Because they have to, otherwise the fig wasp population couldn’t sustain itself.) So many animal species are also dependent on the steady food source of fig trees (btw most look very different from the common fig tree, Ficus carica).
I mean, a fruit with seeds is formed from a flower after pollination. It’s just that on the figs, the flower is apparently inside the unripe fruit.
Not much of a life. Larvae can already be argued to be the main stage of life in many insects, as they get to chill around and munch on plants for ages, while adults have to fly somewhere, shag, lay eggs and croak. With these wasps, the adult male has things way more straightforward for him, and the female seems to not even get to enjoy the larval stage.
Yes however it’s a ghost wasp. It can take whatever phantom size it damn well pleases
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard told me they were big though
What a cool band, I was the orchestra manager on their first stop of their Phantom Island Tour. Their drummer is a force of nature
Hell yeah, it’s a goal of mine to catch a show
Most commercially and home grown produced figs are self-pollinating, only a few wild fig species require wasps to pollinate them. So most people will only ever see wasp-free figs.
Oh thank god.
I know commercial farming is usually terrible, but this bit just seems like a win
Mostly it’s commercial animal farming that is heinously immoral. The big problems with commercial crop farming is the change to landscape (and therefore ecosystem) and reduction of native species and diversity due to farming of one specific species. These can be mitigated (if humans cared), obviously the animal farming problems too, but the animal cruelty is way more evil, and harder to fix institutionally.
I’m pretty sure about these things, but I am not an expert on these specific matters. Never trust some rando as a source. Always do your own research. And even then be careful…… we live in some weird ass times
Apart from the cultivar part, I don’t think that’s true. Apparently even Aristotle has spoken about fig wasps (without really understanding what they are or do of course). So maybe there are some cultivars that are self a pollinating now, but it seems like all non-cultivated fig trees are dependent on this kind of pollination. And btw, there aren’t a “few” wild species, there are over 850 of them!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproductive_coevolution_in_Ficus?wprov=sfla1
I used to have some fig trees, I’d always have to be careful around them as they’d be full of wasps.
Oh, you’re thinking of wasps like yellowjackets. “Fig wasp” uses the taxonomic term for wasp. There are hundreds of thousands of parasitic wasp species out there that most people aren’t familiar with. Fig wasps are gall wasps and are really tiny! Like so small you can hardly see them by the naked eye. It is fascinating how so small beings can fly distances of many kilometers when they are only a millimeter in size.
Though i once saw a bug crawl out of a ripe fig, just as i was about to eat it.
Better than finding half a bug in the fig after your first mouthful
It was a hell of a surprise when I cut open a peach and the pit was smaller and softer than usual and it split in two in my hands and a little slightly drowsy looking winged ant crawled out of one of the halves and started walking around on the counter. Little guy must have had such a long journey. I don’t know how the hell they got INSIDE the pit.
This is why fig newtons taste like delicious hate
I use them when I need to channel the ghosts of 1000 angry wasps.
No, that’s just the sugar. Someone decided figs weren’t sweet enough and that they should add sugar to them.
hey I think you might be allergic to fig newtons
Ah btw, ground coffee literally has ground bugs in it. To the point, that some people get allergic to it.
Everything we eat has allowable amounts of bugs, it’s everwhere.
High Protein Coffee
at some point, we’ll probably be eating bug flour on purpose for sustainability reasons
When do the bugs enter the coffee, and does me grinding my own coffee change anything?
Its specifically cockroaches they are talking about and ground coffee. If you grind your own beans and don’t see any cockroaches or bugs, then your coffee is roach free.
Humans get allergies to cockroaches really easy. Living in cockroach infested areas will eventually create allergies, people who handle cocraches get allergies, it’s not a question of if it’s a question of when.
So if you have developed cockroach allergies you risk going into anaphylactic shock if you go anywhere where ground coffee is in the air like a gas station or coffee shop. If you aren’t griding your own beans, there is some roach in your bean soup.
I had no idea allergies or cockroaches worked like that and I was better off beforehand.
That’s like being allergic to Florida. The more I think about it, that’s a healthy body response!
I forgot some details, but there were articles about it years ago, can just google it. And as far as i remember, bean coffee (self-ground or automat) has way less bugs.
Yum!
Can vegans eat figs?
Most vegans do. The general idea is to avoid exploiting animals, but the wasps are living out their natural life cycle. There are a small number of people who do worry about preventing wild insect suffering but they’re not concerned particularly with figs.
Vegans eat other foods that use fertilizer. Fertilizers could contain meat or meat byproducts… So…
Fertilizers could contain meat
Can you provide an example? Sounds strange. Too expensive.
cow is made of meat.
cow eats grass.
cow has a shit.
said shit is collected to form manure.
this manure is an animal byproduct which the animal did not consent to you taking.
Same as bees and honey.
Im not vegan but thats what a vegan explained to me
also: bone and blood meal
My go-to at KFC.
Consent is needed to pick up animal shit now??
Most certainly, that’s expensive shit!
Do we have any theories as to what the cows were going to do with it?
The fact that some vegans think honey is exploitative really says a lot about their lack of knowledge.
They DO know that if bees don’t like a place, they’ll just … leave, right?
You could say the same about humans working exploitative jobs. You can be unhappy and still stay because the cost of quitting is too high. It’s only when it gets really bad that it becomes worthwhile.
Edit: I just learned from another comment that they sometimes clip the queen’s wings so they can’t leave.
You could, but bees overproduce honey. There’s literally no drawbacks to taking the surplus besides maybe preventing the colony from sending off new queens quite as often, and mildly disturbing the hive when it’s done. (A lot of honey bees are pretty chill about it, even without a smoker.)
I don’t jive with the wing clipping though.
Ok, evil humans extort shit from the cows without their consent. I never thought that vegans are that crazy.
Hi vegan here, stop talking shit about something you know nothing about. Veganism is not living just on air and water.
If there is a cow shitting there is no problem taking that shit and putting it on a field. The problem is when a industry - that is based on exploiting animals - profits of shit flooding our groundwater with nitrate. We want to reduce that huge industry in different ways:
Basic for every vegan: food based on plants not on animals.
how and why people choose to be vegan is as diverse as “being a meateater” is. Some people eat a cheeseburger a day some eat one piece of deer a year.
What I was doing most of my life is environmental veganism: Never bought anything animal related. If e.g. meat was actually thrown away otherwise I’d eat it as well.
Then there are health reasons. (Never digged to deep into that - I am damn healthy and happy with my diet)
And what you are talking about is ethical veganism: Ethical Vegans say there is no reason why humans are allowed to treat animals in that way and think animals are somewhat equal to humans. They would strongly oppose the use of shit of animals on fields if it is possible with less support of the harm the industry does.
Depending on the reason why people do it they often live it in a different way (and sometimes hate each other for their approach)
stop talking shit about something you know nothing about.
Isn’t this kind of how society works and why we are where we are?
You want me to provide examples of fertilizer? Sorry I’m not into shitposting.
Get off the internet and get back to work, Dad.
2nd paragraph: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertilizer
However, starting in the 19th century…
Hasn’t XIX century started in your region yet? :)
Vegans in your country don’t like organic food? Blood/bone meal is still a very popular fertlilizer.
I think I heard recently that one of the mushrooms that is popular as a vegan meat substitute lives off of some sort of living creature like insects or something.
But realistically, it’s all the circle of life. Animal life is part of the circle. Probably all plants have consumed nutrients that came from an animal in some way.
Ethical vegans want to avoid suffering. If figs cause or experience suffering is a philosophical question.
It’s not these figs.
I had a friend that didn’t eat figs for this reason.
Yeah I have a coworker who avoids certain varieties (many varieties don’t include wasps in the normal lifecycle)
not if they have trypophobia
Yeah sure I’ll eat figs. You don’t eat the fig wasps as they have been eaten by the fig already. If I knew there was a fig wasp still inside, I wouldn’t eat it though.
ffs they won’t eat honey, and that’s only because you’re stealing the fruits of the bees’ labor. I would assume the International Vegan Council outright bans figs with extreme prejudice.
they won’t eat honey, and that’s only because you’re stealing the fruits of the bees’ labor
Not the only reason. For example, an infamous and common practice in the honey industry is to cut off the queen’s wings, ensuring the hive has no choice but to stay there and produce honey.
I’ve never met a vegan who won’t eat figs; figs’ relationship with fig wasps is symbiotic, and yes, excluding fruit on the basis that “eating the fruit of a pollinated plant is exploiting the pollinator” probably far oversteps the “practicable” part of veganism:
Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.
Would you eat honey from a natural hive without these practices?
Good question. I wouldn’t (we’re assuming casual foraging for fun and not a survival situation); it’s still not vegan, but it’d be arguably less unethical on a spectrum.
A con compared to the apiary is that these wild bees aren’t being artificially supplemented by e.g. sugar water; it’s live-or-die for them, and that’s their food. It’s not in me to take that away from them when I don’t have to.
If someone took like a teaspoon of honey (still the lifetime output of about a dozen bees) while giving the bees something greater in return, then I don’t think most vegans would think it’s inherently wrong*, but like any ethical framework, whenever you try to find contrived boundaries, it’s kind of like “okay, but why?” It’s sometimes engaging on the armchair but rarely in practice.
A huge pro compared to the apiary is avoiding, in addition to the physical mistreatment of the bees themselves, the perpetuation of the exploitation. If you one-and-done plunder a hive, that’s not vegan, but you’re not giving money to someone as a way of telling them “thanks, and keep doing this”.
* I’m making a hand-wavey assumption here that you can just do that without pissing off and killing a bunch of bees or smoking them out just so we can have perfectly ideal ethical conditions.
This post is informative, horrifying, and indeed very, very spoopy.
Its not 100% accurate. Some wasps get trapped, not all. And there exists a fig species that doesn’t need wasps
Damn, I hadn’t understood it as all figs needing wasps, but figured it was more the reverse of what you’re now saying where maybe some specific varieties had adapted to need them. I already was not a fan of figs, but this is definitely too spoopy for my tastes.
Yeah it changed my love of figs a bit. Fig Newtons…now with 25% less wasps.
They should have worked the wasp angle into their old “A cookie is just a cookie…” commercials. Kids already hated those things, this would have really made the brand stick heh
Would this render figs off limits for vegans and vegetarians? 🤔
Vegetarian is fine, there is no flesh. Vegetarianism is typically a dietary restriction, rather than a philosophical one.
Vegan: it depends. Cultivating figs may be seen as expotation, like bee’s honey is; regardless of the insect’s actual life or wellbeing. Each individual person decides what counts as vegan.
I don’t see the point in this level of specificity, because by eating anything at all you consume fungal spores, tiny mites, microbes etc. Plants are also alive. So there is clearly a line where life is permittably consumed.
If ‘experiencing suffering’ is that line, insects do not seem capable of it, only responding to basic stimuli. I once watched a one trying to eat its own partially severed head, turning it in its front legs while its mouth parts rapidly twitched. It evidently had no comprehension.
No wonder God hates figs
And the bitter pistachio nuts are bitter because you’re eating a dead worm that died inside the nut.
Always, always, always double check the pistachio before you eat it. Learned it the hard way and have spread the word ever since. People’s reactions are always the same shock horror expression when they realize what the bitter pistachios really are.
I didn’t read this.
If the nut looks slightly deformed and/or is dark in the shell and the nut inside is dark, it is not because it was roasted. It’s because there is a worm inside. There’s often a bit of web inside as well. That is not a part of the pistachio. That is the worm’s web.
I know. It is traumatic, but you know now and I’m glad that you do.
The only bad thing about realizing this about pistachios is that I have personally struggled to eat them since, and they used to be one of my favourite snacks. Hopefully, you will be more resilient than me.
I know. It is traumatic, but you know now and I’m glad that you do.
Well I for one, am not.
The only bad thing about realizing this about pistachios is that I have personally struggled to eat them since, and they used to be one of my favourite snacks. Hopefully, you will be more resilient than me.
You really didn’t have to share this and I would have gone on to continue enjoying them. Why? 😭
Gonna go stand in traffic now and hope the concussion deletes this fact.
I’m just the messenger. 😆
Oddly enough this doesn’t deter me from still enjoying pistachios. I probably will forget this soon
You are the chosen one.
I read it, but I’m going to try and forget it as soon as possible.
I mean… Is it harmful? Otherwise, protein!
That’s the spirit! But honestly, they taste so awful, dude. That was why I started inspecting them in the first place.
If you have ever tasted the defensive secretions ladybugs make when they feel threatened, you know what these worms taste like.
If you have ever tasted the defensive secretions ladybugs make when they feel threatened, you know what these worms taste like.
You say that like it’s a normal thing to have tasted. Please don’t tell me I’ve also been unknowingly eating ladybug secretions this whole time😭
Nah, but I grew up in the countryside and part of that territory comes with picking up insects and studying them. And ladybugs would secrete this fluid that would smell and stick to you fingers and when you’re a little kid, running around in the garden, playing with bugs one minute and picking strawberries the next, you end up putting those fingers in your mouth at some point and tasting the bitterness of ladybug “leave me alone”-juice.
TIL figs aren’t vegan
I’m a vegan, although not super strict. But I knew some terror vegans who do not consider vigs vegan.
The definition of “vegan” differs. Like, I don’t like products that had a nervous system. So technically I could eat oysters. But some vegans consider oranges not to be vegan because there might be an animal product in the pesticides used on oranges. Some claim they only use plant based products, but they get mad when I ask them about fungi, as their cell structure looks more like an animal cell than a plant cell (I love to make terror vegans mad).
Being vegan means you buy products which fit your idea of being vegan.
And sadly for some it means you need to be a fucking asshole to anyone you meet.
Regarding your last paragraph: that’s unrelated. There are also lots of insufferably vocal meat eaters who feel personally attacked when someone else doesn’t religiously stuff themselves with meat every meal.
I know zero (0) vocal vegans but 3 meat eaters who make a point on hating vegans and sometimes make it sound like they eat extra meat to spite vegans.
One of them once said to me a restaurant can only be good if it has no vegetarian options.
Yeah, I usually don’t say anything, unless it’s unaoidable and then I usually just say I don’t eat all that much meat.
Most will leave it at that, but I’ll happily answer. I don’t really want to yuck people’s yums, and the food industry is a bit of a special interest of mine.
Advertising is one hell of a drug. Everybody running around eating bacon and butter, and beef tallow, and haven’t had a gram of fiber, getting colon cancer at forty.
Candidly, I think your vocal vegan is like your radical feminist, or social justice warrior, or diversity hire: mostly made up.
meat eaters who feel personally attacked when someone else doesn’t religiously stuff themselves with meat every meal.
Oh, do tell.
I live in Bavaria. There are multiple politicians who don’t get tired to performatively eat sausages and try to make laws that mandate calling oat milk “oat drink” and vegan burgers/schnitzel/… anything else. As if anyone would ever get confused by that. There’s a common joke that they should rename “scouring milk” to “scouring drink” otherwise people get confused!!!
The milk thing though. If it didn’t come from a mammal it isn’t milk, it’s a milk substitute. But milk of magnesia is another traditional thing which isn’t milk
Word meaning depends on usage. People call it “oat milk”, so it’s oat milk.
By that logic it should be “peanut butter substitute” as well
Toothpaste is not made from teeth?!
But do they realize all atoms eventually cycle through the ecosystem?
I’m sure all carbon atoms were part of animal at some point. I guess your fake vegans are just molecular vegans and not atomic vegans.
Hahaha next time I meet one who is starting a discussion to fish (pun intended) for something to trigger on, I now have the perfect comeback 😎
“you’re just a molecular vegan, not an atomic vegan, you’re just a poser”
I’m just saying this specific fruit has a literal animal inside of it
All fruits have that, if you enhance your view enough. Put any fruit under a microscope and it’s crawling with creatures.
Where do we draw the line? Seems like it’s impossible not to eat an animal
Also depends on whether you consider fungi an animal of a plant. As their cell structure resembles more of animal cells than plant cells. And fungi are everywhere. Humans, animals and plants would all die if fungi would seize to exist. They are in our body, create our food and medicine, they are the cycle of life as they break down dead tissue, they feed plants and trees. The oldest living organism is a fungus. They are what keep us all alive, they are basically mother earth. And we eat that. Seeing The Last Of Us suddenly makes a lot of sense. Revenge of the fungi.
Idk isn’t that like saying all animal pollinated plants are not vegan?
Well, this one’s got a literal animal inside of it… Is all I’m saying
I guess it depends on if people think roadkill is vegan; the dead wasp is part of the life cycle of the wasp/fig symbiosis so its going to die well before humans intervene.
Imo the argument could be made that by clearing land for vegetables there’s a large reduction in habitable natural environments. This results in things dying that normally wouldn’t. Especially true when you consider pesticides.
So is the problem the dead bug in the fig or the dead bug outside, say, an apple?
I’ve only been vegan for eight years. I really don’t know what I’m talking about. I’ve never really researched it. I just don’t need animal products. But it seems like eating anything that was an animal or has an animal in it isn’t vegan
Fuck goose down
And I mean, where do we draw the line? There’s microscopic organisms that we kill all the time
Imo, don’t think about it too hard. I think it makes more sense to eat creatures based on a mix of survivorship curve and whether they are intelligent enough to need to be confined.
If you’re building infrastructure more to contain animals rather than keep other ones out, imo that’s the pivot point.
Idealized survivorship curves:
Type 1 and 2 are easy no’s. Type 3 is generally fine as long as its not like an adult turtle or octopus. Type 3 organisms are probably going to get eaten a lot and early in nature while its rare for the adults to get eaten.
This one doesn’t either, it’s just a ghost.
Eating ghosts is vegan
I’m a level five vegan. I don’t eat anything that Casts a shadow
Wait until you find out what fossil fuels are made of
Mostly plant plancton.
Yeah, the point is they are technically not vegan so you have a supply chain issue with everything you consume.
Nitpicky, I know, and of course vegan+fossil fuel based supply chain (as long a I can’t do anything about it) is still good
Mostly plants and plankton?
Are zooplankton vegan?
BIG FIG WASP
Great. My stomach is now haunted by wasp ghosts. Thanks again 2026.
4 out of 5 doctors misdiagnose the cause of diarrhea because they refuse to believe in ghost wasps.
Not to stereotype, but you of all people should be cool with it, no?
They’re ruining the good ectoplasm I need for gut health.
So that’s why god hates figs
I mean, Jesus literally said as much.
Matthew 21:18-22 - Jesus Curses a Fig Tree
18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. 20 And God looketh at Jesus and saideth to himeth- this is a valid crashout-eth.
I want to believe.
I thought for sure this was a joke.
It isn’t.
This happens.
This actually explains the infamous Fig Newton Debacle of ‘92, which my extended family is still divided over.
New! Fig Newtons: Oops! All Wasps!
