Think You Know What Wasps Eat? (chewed up hamburger)

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]So, the paper wasp adults that we see crawling around all over the nest, those feed primarily on like honeydew [music] from aphids, um nectar from flowers, things like that. So, they're kind of sweet um feeders, sometimes rotten fruit and things like that. But the larvae, the young ones, they need [music] more protein in their diet and so they're fed um other insects, particularly caterpillars. [music] So, what the adult wasp does, it flies around, it finds a caterpillar, >> [music] >> um, and it basically just chews up the caterpillar like a hamburger and brings back a small ball of it and feeds it to the larvae. So, if it's a large caterpillar, it will [music] go back and forth multiple times, chewing up a ball of it each time and bringing [music] it back. A smaller caterpillar might be able to do it in one trip. So, that's how they feed their [music] young. And then as adults, they're just eating that pollen and nectar.