Bit of a surprise really. We were sitting outside having just finished our fish and chips and a wasp landed on a bit of left over cod. It proceeded to roll it up in a ball, grab hold of it and fly off. i’ve never seen the likes of it. Anyone else had their dinner stolen by one of the thriving stripy bastards?

Probably an immigrant wasp. Phone the daily mail quick.

i have lost some left over steak fat to them before. i dont really mind as i find them fascinating animals…

Count yourself lucky it wasn’t a seagull, it probably would have taken your daughter.

Worse than seagulls. Gits.

Wasps don’t actually eat solid food as their waists are too narrow. Instead they grab insects, and I guess cod, and feed it to the larval stages in the nest. These in turn excrete a sugary energy rich liquid which the adult wasps eat. They basically spend their whole lives in the grip of a massive sugar rush which no doubt explains their aggressive and jumpy behaviour.

Not heard of them grabbing bits of fish before.

i grew up near the coast… seagulls are not to be messed with, especially herring gulls. they are proper bastards

Not my cod but had several doing breaststroke in my pint.

herring gulls?!?! how big is your glass? 😯 😆

Count yourself lucky it wasn’t a seagull Sea Eagle, it probably would have taken your daughter.

Wonder if it washed it down with some mushy bees?

The buggers just normally make for my beer.

Watched with fascination last Sunday as a wasp chewed through a small piece of beef until it had a chunk that was small enough to fly off with.

@Big Dave, I love STW always interesting stuff to learn. Top post 🙂 and some quality puns on a Saturday evening

That’s what you get for ordering cod.

A poor mans haddock.

i like wasps.

got one out of my classroom by having it land on my finger, walking it to the fire exit then letting it out.

freaked my class out a bit.

I appreciate their pollinating and they are in many respects really fascinating.

BUT up close they are one of the things I must don’t want to deal with or be near ever.

if monkfish is available, try that.

Wasps snapped my ACL.

I appreciate their pollinating …..

I would too if they actually did any. Unfortunately the little feckers only dress up as if to go pollinating, in fact they go out thieving instead.

I prefer Harlequins

I’m still not sure what wasps are for.

I want to see the wasp eating that bird..

Wasps are eating our garden table.

Keeps them away from the pizza though.

Yes, wasps and estate agents – what do they do exactly apart from piss people off?

One robs fish and the other fobs pish?

They can break your arm you know…

I’ve never really got the arm wavey response to wasps, just imagine they’re big stripy flies, they won’t bother you if you leave them alone

I wave them away when stealing my food, which obviously fails, so then shoot to kill.

A friend used to’experiment’ with wasps, something I have since repeated. You can cut their head off and put some food in front of it and it will continue to eat while the food comes out the back of its neck. Fascinating stuff, not very kind but if their head wasn’t off they’d have stung me so swings and roundabouts.

You showed a lot of restraint bol, if I saw a wasp stealing my cod it’d get battered.

Don’t get too complaicent eel be back for more.

I’m still not sure what wasps are for.

They perform a sort of pest control role in most gardens by grabbing things like aphids etc to feed to the larval stage. By moving from plant to plant to search for prey they do perform a small role in polination.

Wasps are eating our garden table

Which means you will have a nest nearby made largely of chewed up bits from your garden table.

I only know about wasps because I have to kill them on a regular basis. Got two nests to deal with tomorrow already.

Many years ago I witnessed a wasp legging winging it away with a slither of freshly roasted chicken. So yeah, they do this sort of thing.

I also seem to have this memory of a restaurant employee/owner feeding bits of steak to a particularly large spider living in one of the air vents or something. Sounds a bit fictional as I’m writing it so could easily be a film. Or a Tales From The Darkside strip. Or a weird dream…

Wasps are awesome creatures. They keep pests at bay and are generally part of nature’s clean-up service.

If you ever get a chance to see a wasp nest up close, just look at their building skills. They can turn a patio table into a multi-storey intricate palace of waspy wonder.

We used to walk down a hedge-lined path the catch the school bus, and as the path entered out garden my mother, sister, brother and I all got stung from the guards of an underground wasp nest. My mother asked dad to get rid of it, but he simply replied about how the wasps had every right to share the garden etc etc, and if we left them alone they wouldn’t bother us. One day I was returning from school to see him using a paraffin weed burner, manically flamethrowering wasps as they desperately tried to escape the inferno.

Over the noise of the burner I asked why the sudden change of heart, and as he looked up I saw the livid mark of a sting on his eyelid.

Which means you will have a nest nearby made largely of chewed up bits from your garden table.

Am aware of this, except for the location of the nest.

They come back every summer and start scratching away at it, my flip flops are seeing plenty of action this year.

If he’d made off with my cod, he’d have had his chips.

this is very good and wasp related

https://www.facebook.com/officiallegolandwindsor/posts/10153089336893364

Wasps purpose is to help us appreciate bees more. The bees are in one room listening to Led Zep with a joint while the wasps are next door giving one another swastika tattoos while listening to Screwdriver.