Are There Dead Wasps Inside our Figs? | Food Unwrapped

first up figs there's an old story that this fruit wouldn't exist without a peculiar relationship with a flying insect good morning how can I help hello there there was sort of a myth I was always told but has there ever been a wasp inside my fig have you got a fake with a wasp nah no but I've heard that in order to get a fig there has to be a wasp at some point nearby right not something I'm aware of all right what do you mean what you know lots of what your wasp I know what what sir yeah yeah but not in a fig no doesn't it sound a little bit bonkers yeah I find it it was by let you know all right you please thank you bye bye to find out whether a wasps got anything to do with a fig I've come to Aden in western Turkey one of the world's biggest big producers [Music] and to help me figure it out I call him professor you gonna ask a specialist organic fruit production meter where we going now we're going to the market to see the pig or mock at landmark in the object so these were the figs here yes these ones all right to eat no they are not edible it's the main thing fruit right and is the female it's both boys and girls so these guys here selling the male figs are they selling to shell to the pig farm eights so could we buy some of these yes we can we can i buy so he doesn't let me give me these figs may be inedible but these insects seem to like them thank you very much but why on earth are fake farmers buying figs from the market we head for the hills in search of an orchard and some answers [Music] Fix have been grown since 9000 BC and are one of mankind's oldest fruits the warm climate in western Turkey is well suited for fig trees and the region now produces 700 tonnes of figs every day and figs have got a very strong association with the Middle East of the Mediterranean and they're sure the orchards planted with row on row of fig trees but they're all female the only male specimens round here are this lot so what's happening here then professor these are male fig fruit so the white I thought the same the way okay and as you can see that our mini it was I spent years study insects but hadn't realized these little black fellows are the fig wasps clearly not your typical black and yellow jobs and there are many more in sight so the wasps are actually inside the legs there's an eye and from the eye these small wasps come out look at that inside there are brown males and black females each with a specific job these are the means and that's the female the male wasps just do the simple stuff they do a very holy job they help the female to get out and they also fertilize the female for the generations so they live in the dark don't have any wings got a dig a whopping great hole to let the girls out mate once and died yes that is a rubbish life bagged up the mail figs full of wasps are hung in the female fig trees basically once I finish this I'm just gonna put fairy on top as well the male wasps never leave but the pregnant females crawl out desperate to lay their eggs somewhere they're drawn to the fresh female figs growing all around them their little black speck that's a female going in once the female wasp gets into the female fig she lays her eggs no the only function is to pollinate so the figs that we eat they're like a trap for the female wasp she goes in she pollinates but she's into dr. ilk nakusoo Lou examines the crucial role of wasps in the writing of figs hi there you must be the wasp expert oh great now I brought my fig here I want to find out exactly what the little wasps are getting up to and how are they making the figs that we eat should the good news for that to come I do let me show off my food on check I can pull an area choice nail we do do not hat sorry for not all that stuff there's the pollen so tell me when I eat my fig is there any dead wasp left inside it may be the choice that chocolate lens in now right or is Magda maybe boo look Jay Haas Attica dark or saline in as necessary polio so in a way there is a tiny wasp but but because it happens when the fig is very small and as the fig grows the wasp just gets absorbed so you don't really notice it so when you bite into a deliciously ripe foreign fig it's gonna be a female there may be a little wisp of wasp but you won't be biting into anything crunchy [Music] you

Channel: Food Unwrapped

Views: 80,858

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Keywords: food, unwrapped, UK, Food Unwrapped, Food Unwrapped UK, Cooking, Science, Ingredients, Investigation, Explore, Travel, Channel 4, Kate Quilton, Jimmy Doherty, Matt Tebbutt, Food Industry, Processed Food, Foods, Packaged Foods, figs, figs wasps, wasps in figs, urban legend, turkey, fig farm, growing figs, street food

Id: VTqovnpNmMQ

Length: 6min 11sec (371 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 05 2020