This article is suggesting that figs have dead wasps in them

http://www.thekitchn.com/strange-symbiosis-the-fig-and-126960

Bass: That is a very good link about wasps, thanks for sharing.

Best,
Tam

Some vegetarians wont eat figs for that reason.

The comments are funny there. It seems the people become more and more gentle, like large jelly fish :( In my memory, the world was different 30 years ago at least. Is it just me or something has really changed? We ate pretty much anything ...

Very cool, thanks Bass...I always wondered what ultimately happened to the female.

I look at eating figs, and the whole wasp 'thing' as just a way to get some extra protein.  : )    I'm not the least bit worried.

Besides, we'd all voluntarily starve, if we  knew what falls into out food supply when is processed in factories, that are infested with God knows what!  Do you really want to know just what's in the hot-dogs that we barbeque? 

If ignorance is bliss, then I'm ecstatic.


Frank

[QUOTE=BronxFigs]I look at eating figs, and the whole wasp 'thing' as just a way to get some extra protein.  : )    I'm not the least bit worried.

Besides, we'd all voluntarily starve, if we  knew what falls into out food supply when is processed in factories, that are infested with God knows what!  Do you really want to know just what's in the hot-dogs that we barbeque? 

If ignorance is bliss, then I'm ecstatic.


Frank[/QUOTE]

I think you hit the nail on the head!

It brings to mind when I was a teenager, we knew an elderly minister and he would come to our home on Friday nights for dinner because we always had t-bone steaks. He never ate ground pepper because he said he worked in a factory as a boy, and they would grind up literally everything, mostly mice/rats, into the pepper. My dad, on the other hand, always washed off aluminum cans before opening because of feces/urine from mice, due to storage.

 I highly doubt that much has changed, but I certainly don't dwell on it. Selective ignorance works well and keeps the bliss intact. I also bear in mind that what don't kill ya will only make ya stronger!

Too bad figs don't digest ants, always seems to eat some every year.

[QUOTE=Chivas]Too bad figs don't digest ants, always seems to eat some every year.[/QUOTE]

They say those suckers are really tasty dipped in Chocolate! :D

I talked to the Portuguese friend. He told me that the blind, wingless male wasps are very aggressive, they spend a lot of their time fighting each other for mates and searching out galls containing females. Upon finding one, he chews a small hole, big enough for his impressive telescopic genitals to get in, and  injects semen into the reproductive tract of a female. Later he digs an escape tunnel towards the eye of the fig for the female to get out, then he is exhausted and finally dies in the fig cavity.  He lives about a day and spent his entire life within the fig.The female wasps lay their eggs only in the male figs. So, if she climbs into a female fig, she pollinates it, but cannot lay her eggs and just dies in there. The female fig produces a special enzyme that digest this wasp completely.

Best,
Tam

WOW Tam  That's interesting. It's a cruel world at all levels.  I like self pollinating figs!

I don't fully agree with the article as it was written in a way that scares people from eating figs. It doesn't mention about how e wasps enhances the flavor of common figs and how beneficial for Smyrna figs. People think that all figs are technically filled with wasps. Anyways, I can imagine how many bugs are eaten by my free range chickens and they lay the healthiest and tastiest eggs. The UN is actually encouraging people to eat more bugs, to help with food shortage lol

See this video that was on PBS in the past .
Saw on our tv and its the best out there.

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/the-queen-of-trees-ficus-sycomorus-fig-wasp-etc-5659446?highlight=queen+africa

 YAY for the female wasp!  She desolves those fighting, cussing, sex-crazed males with telescoping genitals so we dont have to deal with them.   lol.

Martin: Thanks for the link to the wonderful video. This video has the subtitles in Vietnamese and yes, I am Vietnamese American.

Best,
Tam

I kind of like fighting, cussing, sex crazed males Soni. The telescoping genitals just sound plain frightening. LOL