"average person eats 8 figs a year" factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 figs per year. Figs Georg, who lives in cave & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted
Imagine living your whole life inside part of a living organism. It feeds you when you're young and dissolves you if you don't leave it soon enough. Your instincts tell you to mate with your siblings and burrow out of this thing that's all you've ever known, and then half of you die as soon as you reach the outside world, while the other half burrows into different pods to get digested there, surrounded by your own unborn babies Sounds like a scifi. I love how wild nature is
Yes! As a retired horticulturist ,his info is not only clear but accurate.Here in W.Tx,we are able to grow the most wonderful figs,and the wasps aren't usually a problem,it's getting out there to pick the figs every day before the grackles,Cardinals,Bluejays,Mockingbirds,Doves and Sparrows go wild on your fruits!
@@traceyevans2757 Not sure what is strange about citing one's profession when commenting on how a video is handling the subject matter of that profession.
It sounds a bit terrifying. It reminded me a lot of this one chapter in the Life Of Pi, where Pi is on an island made of moss that “eats” any animal that’s still on the ground during the night. Even finding some human teeth in the bud of flower that has yet to bloom growing on the island.
There's lots of plants that can do similar things, that slight tingle on your tongue and lips when you eat pineapple? Yeah that's the enzymes in the pineapple trying to digest YOU, you just usually are faster.
I have only vague memories of a fig tree that was in our backyard, when I was very little. I remember that it was fun to climb, and that it had large, thick leaves that provided shade from summer heat. For years, I heard my Mom recall how difficult it was to keep the patio clean from dropping figs. This was in Livermore, Calif., (east of San Francisco). She said that she would sweep, and hose the patio ... only to walk inside, and hear another "plop." Now it makes sense. The tree was, likely, rejecting the figs that were of no use to it. Fun stuff!
im visiting croatia and these fig trees are everywhere, its cool to read your comment describing one meanwhile i can look at the real thing just moments after
no, those were not unfertilized figs that 'plopped' because they would be unripe, dry or even shriveled. they wouldn't be mess either. the messy figs that bothered her must have been fully ripe soft figs that popped as they fell and dirtied the surface with their juice and flash. interestingly, figs and mulberries, probably the two messiest fruit trees that litter surfaces with sweet, sticky and dark red jam-like substances are both from the same Moraceae plant family
fig trees dropping their figs is the entire goal of the fertilization process. they get pollinated, grow seeds inside them, and then drop off when theyre ripe so an animal can eat them and spread the seeds. they dont just drop when theyre being rejected
You probably don't have to worry about it because almost all fig trees are self-pollinating you have to go search for a fig tree that needs to be pollinated by a wasp and there's very few of those here in America. A quick Google search will let you know how misleading this video is
When I first heard about this, I was more worried about the sting from a potential wasp than the wasp itself. I’m pretty sure these wasps don’t have stings tho so I don’t worry.
I picked up a pack of Fig Newtons for the first time in YEARS last week and thought something just wasn't the same about them...turns out it was the seeds and wasp bits that I was missing. Such a bummer. The seedy waspy Newtons were so much better.
Finally a youtuber who plays his ads at the end of the video. As a paid customer of youtube premium which advertises no commercial interruption, it is frustrating when there is still commercial interruption.
I'm not weirded out by too much on the food realm, but this definitely blew my mind when I first learned of it. Adds a whole other freaky dimension to an already pretty alien (and beautiful) not-fruit
same, the wasps basically being ants means i wouldn't really care even if they weren't dissolved. At that miniscule size the insect is basically a more palatable grain of sand.
I'm much more scared about the illegal settler colonial occupation of Palestine by the Zionist Regime from which the quoted "scientists" (colonial occupiers who served in the child-murdering IDF) in Adam's video hail than I am from a couple old dead wasps in a fig.
You can very easily argue growing unfertilized fruit isn't bad for the tree but evolutionarily beneficial if humans choose to cultivate those trees specifically for their more consistent yield. Even if they're "wasting" energy on non-reproductive figs, there are few evolutionary forces more potent than human agriculture.
Avocados somewhat famously were dispersed by giant ground sloths, all of which went extinct so why do we still have avocados, human intervention. It is certainly a survival strategy to be liked by humans who often will go out of their way to "pamper" plants we like. (Usually to eat them, but we replant and care for them to assure a stable food supply. So a tree "wasting" energy growing useless fruit is really investing in getting some farmers to come pamper it or its children/clones.)
Sure we be powerful. Until the next bug figure a way around your forever-cloned fig orchard and the never-sexual figs join their banana bros on the road to annihilation by avoiding genetic recombination.
Wild figs grew in my back yard at my old home and I ate one and it became my favorite fruit related crop. But watching this makes me rethink my life decisions…
what most people do not realize are t....ny little wasps that you find in figs are pollinated by those little wasps. without those little wasp there would be no figs or fig newtons ohh give me a figgy pudding no give me a figgy pudding and don't forget the wasps ..
@@eitantaub5503 Yea nothin’ better… But now i can’t stop thinking of wasps and i know it’s ok to eat but if i let my relatives know they’ll FLIP when I eat it!
I actually found one inside a fig when I was young before I knew about this and thought "that's weird, creepy, and kinda gross," but I just assumed it was some kind of bug that died eating into the fig, picked it out, and ate the rest of the fig. I guess that makes me one of the few people who was actually relieved when they found out it's totally normal for there to be dead wasps inside of figs. 🙃😆
@@Denelix I didn't know why the dead wasp was in there, just found it while eating a whole fig, not a fig Newton, and then later found out that it's how figs are pollinated.
Thanks for getting the point immediately at the beginning of the video. Usually a lot of people try to bury the lead. I really appreciate that. I watched the whole video, good info here especially for someone who knows nothing about this stuff but has eaten a good amount of figs lol.
There are maximum standards for bug bits and rat poop and the like in commercial food products and the maximum allowed amount is almost always not zero.
At almost 60 years of age is a wonderful thing that I can learn something new every day this (and of course I love your channel very much), is one of the most fascinating things I've ever heard thank you for the education what an unbelievable story thank you
No worries, Friends. I used to work at a large Fig Picking and Packing Company, here in Central California, (Jura Farms, Fruit Packing). It was my job, to walk around the fig trees in the hot summer mornings and afternoons, take refrigerated figs that had young fruit flies inside, where I would then place [One or Two figs] in a small brown bag, stapled to each fig tree, the tiny fruit flies would come out of the now warm figs, - and begin going from fig blossom to fig blossom, in very much the way We humans use bees to pollinate a variety of trees for fruit, etc. 'Honestly, it''s quite normal for them to do that, as they have done that specific job for probably Millions of years.' And so: Yes, I'm 100% sure the small fruit flies will end up in the figs as we harvested them, but nobody gave it one thought, as the fruit flies are beneficial little insects that never gave us a second thought. They don't / can't bite, they don't care at all about humans, but they go straight away to their work as I recall, when I was a young man, back during the Summer of 1984. Yup. In essence: the Fig picking process is labor intensive, the harvesting of figs that are placed into large wooden bins was a little dirty, as both Flies and a few Regular flies would naturally land on the figs outside of the warehouse processing room, - but the end result (Yummy Figs) was actually quite good. Mom used to love em. Grew up with Fig Newtons. No worries here, lol. - ' The Fig Newtons always tasted great! - Nuff Said.' - Peace. \\//
I was just telling my mom about fig wasps yesterday! Perfect timing, now I've gotta show this video to her so we can bond some more over weird bug facts
Glad to see this being talked about here. Parasitoid wasps are a, very weird branch of the Animalia tree. Hoping this gets people interested in learning more about this branch of hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps). Fun fact, those wasps you mentioned breifly are Parasitoid, not true parasites! its weird distinction, but it helps to find them if you want to find them. Good work as always
Good to see another fellow who knows his entomology! Parasitoid wasps are a focal point of my research, and this year we finally implemented a system to rear them in large numbers. The IPM potential of these tiny guys are truly incredible.
@@brown9629 Neat! would love to read an abstract on some research. Sadly most of my studies (college, i do lab work now) was comparative anatomy focused, I just have an enjoyment of herpetology and some entomology
I think describing inflorescence that way implies that it needs to be inverted but this isn’t the case. Inflorescence simply means multiple flowers on the same stem section. It’s a bit more broad.
*"This video made me regret my passion of eating figs. I am no longer satisfied with my views of such, and I will never look at them the same again."* "Great video Adam! 😁"
This was the most interesting thing I've seen on RUclips. I've only heard the urban legends about how everyone was eating wasps. When my mom moved out here in Vegas, she planted a fig tree and it would make fruit 4 times a year. Her favorite way to eat them was to wrap them in prosciutto. Love your channel, keep up the great content!
Say what you will about Adam’s culinary abilities; his selection of weird RUclips titles is so good they belong in a museum of their own. I would put this next to “cucumbers are melons and sometimes they explode.”
3:30 Minor nitpick, that's actually a parasitoid, not a parasite! True parasites are detrimental to their host's health, but don't necessarily kill them, while parasitoids kill their host as part of the process.
OMG, I'm now even more sad than I was about losing my first fig tree. Once upon a time, my gran planted a fig which was perhaps the most Northern fig tree in Europe. This is disputed, but whatever. This fig tree bore ripe figs every three or four years, and our feeling about it was that it was about the weather. A few years before gran died, we decided to plant an offspring in another part of the farm, and it flourished. It still does. All was good. But when my gran was dying, and my cousins and I were at the hospital, my ignorant uncle saw it fit to cut down the original fig tree, and also "treat" all the herbs with Roundup. When we returned to the farm, rosemary, lovage, mint (who the f... can kill mint?), dill, parsley, and thyme was gone as well as the roses, and we have never been able to regrow them because it takes ages to get out the Roundup. And the remaining fig tree is no longer able to finish the fruits. I suppose the fig wasps lived in the old tree. I've recently posted about this on an other food channel, but never before, and I think it's because its only now, ten years later, I understand the devastating effect my ignorant uncle's actions had. I had never imagined that even today, I can't grow a rosemary bush on a south-facing wall, because there is still Roundup in the ground. Now, I will build raised beds. But goddamit. And think of all the thousands of acres of land that have been treated with Roundup.
If it makes you feel any better, if you lived in Northern Europe, you did not have the fig wasp. So they were never there to be killed. I grow figs in the Pacific Northwest and I do not have fig wasps. Many fig varieties are self-fruitful. They are referred to as common figs, or ficus carica. You may be able to take a cutting from the existing plant and grow a clone. However, if the existing plant was grown from seed, then it will not be a genetic copy of the original tree. And may not produce any figs that you'd want to eat.
You may want to look at other sources for your soil conditions, if things still aren't going well after 10 years, because roundup contamination will be almost entirely cleared up after 6 months, for aerobic conditions, or 2.75 years, for anaerobic ones.
Speaking of Jesus Christ, maybe this puts his cursing of the Fig Tree into a different perspective. What if it's a just-so story to explain parthenogenesis and how certain figs have virgin births now, and miss out on that hot wasp on wasp action.
I remember hearing Jean Shepherd tell this story on WOR radio in NYC in the 1970s about learning about wasps in figs from one of his teachers. It freaked me out when I heard this as a kid but I didn’t stop eating Fig Newtons because they were good.
I’ve heard about this before but this was an awesome deep-dive into the actual relationship and process, as well as some excellent macro views! Many thanks, Adam!
I love Israeli figs especially cause the Israeli farmers who grow them water their soil using the blood of the Palestinian families they've murdered to acquire their farmland
Great video! Pleasantly surprised to see something about fig wasps in my feed. Someone may have already commented about this, but I think the wasps pictured at 0:33 and 2:06 are parasitoids of fig wasps in the family pteromalidae. They’re depositing their eggs through the fig so their larvae can feed on the developing fig wasps!
Can we just acknowledge the fact this man is able to make a living by filming himself climbing a tree,picking figs and eating fig newtons while wearing a super mario shirt? I'm not being sarcastic. Obviously theres a lot more going on, but still. I honestly think thats awesome.
@@nonethelessfirst8519 hollywood ran out of ideas years ago. now it's blow everything up, shoot everything up and show some skin with some hotties and it's a movie. toss in some choreographed fight scenes that would make mike tyson say "uncle" and producers eat it up.
That was quite interesting! I planted a fig tree about 24 yrs ago & now every yr I get tons of figs. It’s a beautiful tree. All kinds of birds & other critters come when it fruits
I lost one of my first teeth biting into a fig Newton and hitting a seed. Had one recently and also noticed there were no seeds, but I dismissed it as just more over processed food. Good to know!
I researched a bit about caprification, essentially it bear the name from the "caprifico" aka the wild fig, that doesn't make edible figs but is loved by wasps. It wasn't just done in that particular occasion, even if you have native figs but you have an hard time getting fruits you could hang some wild figs stems onto your cultivated one and voila you'll - hopefully - have ton of wasps on your tree. Ancient romans knew this thing already
On the subject of etymology, the "partheno-" in "parthenocarpic" is derived from the Greek "parthenos", meaning "virgin". Other terms from this root include "parthenogenesis", meaning when an animal conceives offspring without a mate, and Parthenon, the famous temple to Athena in Athens (because Athena, in addition to being the goddess of wisdom, battle strategy, and weaving, was also a virgin goddess.)
I'm so glad I watched this. I was always afraid of eating figs ever since I heard about the wasp thing, because I had seen a photo (maybe faked) of a fig cut in half with a massive wasp inside. I never wanted to bite into a fig and have that happen. Yet I did always love fig newtons and remember them being crunchy, too. Sad. Thanks for helping my brain get over my fear of figs.
The wasp that do fertilize the figs are very tiny. You almost need a magnifying glass to see them well. So, don't worry. But all figs in the US grown outside of southern California will not have any wasp.
Im in croatia visiting my gfs family and every street has fig trees, theyre growing everywhere here! Its really nice to be able to watch a video like yours then go out "in the real world" and see it in action!
I hate that they plant our trees here in the US to not produce any fruits smh you can find almost NO trees around here with fruits growing on them. They say it’s because they’re hard to keep the walk ways clean with fruit producing trees. Idk... seems like they could feed a lot of people if they did let them grow. But some people will defend their decision not to. So who knows. We love capitalism here & have been brainwashed to believe any other way is “wrong”. Smh
That's amazing! I was just helping my uncle pick figs earlier and I noticed little bugs on one that I assumed were just gnats, but maybe they were actually wasps!
So glad you made this, I've been rambling about this to my friends since middle school. Definitely a hyper focus of mine and so glad to hear more about the lil wasps.
My parents had a fig tree in our backyard when I was a kid. The figs were purple when ripe. I used to think that all figs were purple, because our tree was the only one I knew about. Now I know differently!
You taught me a few things about figs I did not know! I have, however, purposely eaten Oak Gall wasp larvae, small white grub worm-like larvae that grow inside round “galls” that the parent wasps create on Oak tree branches here in Texas. The larvae taste very much like almonds and are packed with protein. Here’s a fun fact: To defend themselves against infestation from Gall wasps, and the swollen galls they create for their larvae to live in, oak trees will force large quantities of tannins (tannic acid)-astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules-into the galls. Oak galls are the main source of the tannic acid (C76H52O46 ) and gallic acid (3,4,5-trihydroxybenzoic acid) used to create a famous, historic ink known as Iron Gall Ink, which was used to write not only the oldest known Bible in existence, but also the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, along with thousands of other famous documents. Leonardo da Vinci used iron gall ink to draw most of his famous drawings. Iron Gall Ink is easy (and fun) to make and a super cool, eye opening science experiment you can perform safely with your kids at home. The Townsends channel has a great video on the ink and the process. All this from a small wasp! Science All The Things!! 🤘😍🤘
I haven’t had a dog newton in many years and I literally can feel how crunchy they are. That’s crazy they don’t have seeds anymore! That crunchy texture was part of the experience.
I find this interesting as growing up in the 2000s i never once experienced a crunchy fig newton and definitely would have been weirded out by one. I'm not opposed to the idea but its just not what i mentally expect from one.
Growing up 25+ years ago, I don't ever remember Fig Newtons having seeds in them. Not that I ever ate particularly many of them, but I still distinctly remember the ones I did eat being chewy all the way through.
maybe the ones you ate came from a different farm or farms? i'm not sure where they're all sourced from and i'm not old enough to know what old fig newtons were like
@Forgotten Hope I'm squarely a millennial, not a zoomer. And 25 years is still more than enough time to make significant changes in a recipe. Adam isn't that much older than me, less than a decade.
Love figs,I’ve got five trees. I also love fig rolls and I have noticed a tad of crunchiness with them, but if its waspy that’s fine. Thank you, that was so interesting!
Figs are kind of a big thing where I live, there are lots of fig trees and they’re part of our culture: raw figs, cooked figs, fig cake, fig marmalade, fig pie, fig and cheese and fig with nuts.
Cool shirt! I never knew about the seeds as a child and remember enjoying the Fig Newtons until I hit that crunch and I nearly got sick from that. I really hated anything that would add a wet crunch in something with a smooth consistency (onions within something soft too). The kid version of myself would be excited for modern Fig Newtons. It wasn't until I was an adult that I had the opportunity to try a whole fig and was hitting that crunch to learn that's normal.
You don't hate all wasps, do you? I mean, it's understandable for the absolute B%¤#rds who seem to have a chip on their shoulder and murder in their eye, but harmless fig wasps, just going about their time, or the parasitic wasps that just remove moth larvae from the world? Why would you hate those, except on general principle of 'kin of my enemy'?
To me, the most important part is that even if your fig had a wasp in it, it was dissolved and absorbed by the plant. People trying to ick you out usually leave that part off. It also means figs are kinda carnivorous plants which is interesting
Did you catch how he says if its crunchy its got a wasp in it then immediately goes and says its not the actual wasp its a seed. That is so damn confusing I notice this guy makes tons of mistakes..... crazy he has so many subscribers oh well.
It’s a damn relief that I’ve only ever known them to be chewy. The manufacturers clearly make sure it stays that way, or else I doubt it would’ve sat well with some people.
Brit here, we used to call Garibaldi biscuits “dead fly biscuits” because that’s what the fruit looked like. Older kids told us they really were dead flies to gross us out, and we in turn, pretended to younger children when it was out time. Ah the power of peer pressure lol.
I have a very large 25' tall fig tree in the back , and I harvested about 180lbs of figs off it this year and gave them to a bunch of local people. By all the pictures I've seen it's either Calimyrna or Adriatic. My tree produced some the size of baseballs this season. It's become my baby / pet project. I need to learn to prune correctly. Hoping next season I can supply everyone with some great figs.
If a lot of people from the Jain community watches your video, they might yet another thing to add to their Do Not Eat list. Leaving us to enjoy this wonderful fruit!
I very much doubt that any of this is news to anyone in the Jain community. They already don’t eat fruits with seeds, and figs have sees, so figs are prohibited regardless of wasps or not.
@@ChickentNug I mean the animals that vultures eat are typically dead too, it feels different to me here since the wasp becomes a part of the fruit after, it gets digested
I don't think so, because as I understand it, the fig just dissolves the dead wasp. I don't think the tree actually gets any nourishment from the wasp, so it's not exactly feeding on it.
buy the plant base figs bars from costco. they are plant base which meab they grow their figs in an enclosed place because if a wasp is in there it cant be plant base.
Adam, I'm sad that you didn't state if you reached out to Nabisco to see if they would tell you if the figs they do use are the seedless variety or if they're just removing the seeds in production. I don't think this would be a trade secret, and there is no harm in asking.
There’s an incredible BBC nature documentary showing the process of fig pollination at a macroscopic level as well the ecosystem that depends on fig trees. It’s called “The Queen of Trees” and I cannot recommend it more.
Interesting. Never knew that. My Fig have seeds and crunch, but I haven't seen any fly or wasp being around it. I will pay more attention for the next year.
Nice video. Weirdly enough I knew a little bit about this process through King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. They have a track called Big Fig Wasp. So I had to learn learn more from this video lol BIG FIG WASP!
I feel like it would be easy to test that theory on whether the ancient fig was human raised or not. They could sequence its genes and then start comparing it to other parthenogenic fig trees around the world to see if they get a match since if their theory is that it's made from clippings, and clippings are just little clones of the parent, if that tree continued to be used then there's a chance that it's genes are still floating around in the parthenogenic agricultural population.
first of all: SUPER AWESOME SHIRT! secondly: Does the same go for DATES? I heard they might have some bugs in them from time to time? Would love to see a video on that as well :)
Dates are totally different AFAIK; they grow on palms and I think are actually fruit. Note that not all palms are date palms, nor do all similar-looking plants bear edible fruit-certain cycads are poisonous.
Dried figs are amazing, we dry them cut in half and are sold here everywhere. BTW in Greek the name of fig in plural resembles the most common Russian swear word (which makes every Russian I know, giggle)
I remember the crunchy fig newtons in the late 60s maybe into the 1970s anyway, and the crunch was half of the fun. The delicious taste, and that crunch. Plus finding random seeds in my mouth later.
Hi Adam have you noticed that figs ( like almonds and pineapples) alter your taste temporarily? Maybe you can do a show on why this happens and possibly how to work around it?
I never ate a Fig Newtons growing up. My Great Grandmother had 2 fig trees in her yard. She made fig jam and used it to make “fig bars”. They looked like Newtons. I ate my first Fig Newton as adult. They’re awful. I have Gramma’s handwritten recipe for her fig bars.
@@kumabear3529 the sad thing is the main ingredient, flour, has a very imprecise measurement. It calls for “one sifter full”. What the heck is that? And I remember the “cup” she used to measure sugar. It was a green Depression glass tea cup. Unfortunately I don’t have that cup. I do, however, have the tin she stored sugar in. It’s a huge, round tin from the Imperial Candy. I think it’s from the 1890’s. I use it to store her old buttons.
Some vegans will not eat them because of this. But to me this is silly. It is not like the grower is shoving the wasp inside. It is just a natural process.
@@Cmallon81 unfortunately, silliness and veganism go hand in hand. Nothing against vegetarians, but veganism is unhealthy and misguided, in my opinion, and it's well informed.
@@riveteye93 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19562864/ Sorry but you're straight wrong, Vegan diets are proven healthy and perfectly fine for long term consumption. I'm unsure what you mean by misguided, however they are drastically better for the environment and perfectly fine healthwise.
Crazy thing is if you have eaten figs off of a tree in America it's almost a guarantee that it was not pollinated by wasp because almost all of our fig trees in America are self-pollinating. This guy just used a clickbait title and did not acknowledge that the pollinating fig trees or way more rare than what we have here in America. You can order one and grow it if you choose but I don't see why when we have the abundance of self-pollinating figs here.
@@DJMerck He does more than acknowledge it at about 4:11 and onwards. The very tree he is standing under is a fig tree with parthenocarpic figs that he states he grew for the purpose of the video. You must not have watched very far in.
@@DJMerck except they aren't self-pollinating, fig pollen is only found in the male fig (caprifig). the fig varieties that don't need pollination do not produce viable seeds.
@@DelusionalMoron ficus carica, are self-pollinating. The fact that you stated this so incorrectly proves all of your information has come from RUclips and maybe Facebook. But good attempt though. There are some that are pollinated through wasp but there are many that do not need a wasp whatsoever and I actually know this as an absolute fact because I have different varieties growing and we sell them every year. A little real research "not on RUclips" would probably benefit you a good deal.
@@DJMerck I have grown figs for a good part of my life and am part of a fig growing community, so no - my information is not from youtube. If figs were actually self-pollinating, then you'd see wild figs growing everywhere like you do in California. Try taking one of the seeds from the figs you grow and try getting it to germinate. You will not be able to. This is the reason why a lot of serious fig growers keep a caprifig, so they can hand pollinate to breed new trees by seed.
Thanks for that info. I just heard that about the fig wasp earlier this month. I have a couple of fig trees and pretty sure they are partheno..whatchama-call-it varieties. They are only a couple of years old and we have only gotten a few figs off one of them so far. My wife wasn't going to eat them if they had wasp in them. So I had her watch your video and all she said at the end was "Why don't you rock some blue short shorts like Adam?" Still not going to eat the figs.
If you live in America, there are no fig wasps here naturally unless you import them as the fig farmers do here in Cali. So no, you are not eating wasp bits in your home grown fig trees.
Me, a vegan: in theory i am totally ok with this. It's Just Nature nature-ing Me in practice: ... You know, i never liked these Alien fruits anyway....
Scientists have shown that over the course of a year, on average, about eight figs crawl into your mouth at night while you sleep.
Israeli scientists have shown that you can murder children as long as they're Palestinian
That's actually a misconception, Figs George who lives in a cave and eats thousands of figs a night should not have been included in the study.
@@ShadowRulah you don't get to fig-pick the data to support your agenda.
"average person eats 8 figs a year" factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 figs per year. Figs Georg, who lives in cave & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted
@@leetri fig news, I don't buy it!
Imagine living your whole life inside part of a living organism. It feeds you when you're young and dissolves you if you don't leave it soon enough. Your instincts tell you to mate with your siblings and burrow out of this thing that's all you've ever known, and then half of you die as soon as you reach the outside world, while the other half burrows into different pods to get digested there, surrounded by your own unborn babies
Sounds like a scifi. I love how wild nature is
A lot of sci-fi is inspired be weird (to us) things in nature.
That's just Alabama
Reality is often more terrifying than fiction.
Underrated comment 👏
@@jojomojo508 damnit beat me to it.
Botanist here. Adam, I have to say you really do your botany info accurately. It's clear you so careful research and it kicks ass.
Yes! As a retired horticulturist ,his info is not only clear but accurate.Here in W.Tx,we are able to grow the most wonderful figs,and the wasps aren't usually a problem,it's getting out there to pick the figs every day before the grackles,Cardinals,Bluejays,Mockingbirds,Doves and Sparrows go wild on your fruits!
BoTaNiSt HeRe 😂
@@traceyevans2757 Not sure what is strange about citing one's profession when commenting on how a video is handling the subject matter of that profession.
@@traceyevans2757 ViRGiN HeRe 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
since i learned that the fig essentially dissolves the wasp inside it, that just made figs sound more monstrous to me
Yes. Me too, sort of. A bit creepy, it seems.
Extra protein
It sounds a bit terrifying. It reminded me a lot of this one chapter in the Life Of Pi, where Pi is on an island made of moss that “eats” any animal that’s still on the ground during the night. Even finding some human teeth in the bud of flower that has yet to bloom growing on the island.
I think the wasps are fine with it
There's lots of plants that can do similar things, that slight tingle on your tongue and lips when you eat pineapple? Yeah that's the enzymes in the pineapple trying to digest YOU, you just usually are faster.
I have only vague memories of a fig tree that was in our backyard, when I was very little. I remember that it was fun to climb, and that it had large, thick leaves that provided shade from summer heat. For years, I heard my Mom recall how difficult it was to keep the patio clean from dropping figs. This was in Livermore, Calif., (east of San Francisco). She said that she would sweep, and hose the patio ... only to walk inside, and hear another "plop." Now it makes sense. The tree was, likely, rejecting the figs that were of no use to it. Fun stuff!
im visiting croatia and these fig trees are everywhere, its cool to read your comment describing one meanwhile i can look at the real thing just moments after
Livermore is a great place to be, good wine country
This reads like something from a novel
no, those were not unfertilized figs that 'plopped' because they would be unripe, dry or even shriveled. they wouldn't be mess either. the messy figs that bothered her must have been fully ripe soft figs that popped as they fell and dirtied the surface with their juice and flash.
interestingly, figs and mulberries, probably the two messiest fruit trees that litter surfaces with sweet, sticky and dark red jam-like substances are both from the same Moraceae plant family
fig trees dropping their figs is the entire goal of the fertilization process. they get pollinated, grow seeds inside them, and then drop off when theyre ripe so an animal can eat them and spread the seeds. they dont just drop when theyre being rejected
Thanks man, you cured my phobia of eating wasps in figs! I’m so relieved to hear that they dissolve
U vill eatz zee bugz.
You probably don't have to worry about it because almost all fig trees are self-pollinating you have to go search for a fig tree that needs to be pollinated by a wasp and there's very few of those here in America. A quick Google search will let you know how misleading this video is
@@DJMerck And you only had to watch the video a little further to see that he talks about that. Amazing
@@TunaIRL no thanks...
When I first heard about this, I was more worried about the sting from a potential wasp than the wasp itself. I’m pretty sure these wasps don’t have stings tho so I don’t worry.
“Figs have tiny wasps inside them” can be said to the same rhythm as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Flowers in a green skin, figgy power
Damn. This is the statement of all time.
God I love the internet...
Wasplettes in a fig fruit, bzzz bzzz power
Dead wasps in a fig fruit!
I picked up a pack of Fig Newtons for the first time in YEARS last week and thought something just wasn't the same about them...turns out it was the seeds and wasp bits that I was missing. Such a bummer. The seedy waspy Newtons were so much better.
Lol
honestly i love it
My newtons I had tonight had seeds. And the crunch.
The fig absorbs the female wasp ... so you won't find a wasp in a fig
@@alexcarter8807 The waspy-bits part was a joke, the crunchy seedy part wasn't. They simply are better with seeds.
Finally a youtuber who plays his ads at the end of the video. As a paid customer of youtube premium which advertises no commercial interruption, it is frustrating when there is still commercial interruption.
Do you actually still get ads if you pay for premium?
@@justinmorrison6279 Hes talking about advertisements/sponsorships included in the video by the videos creator
*laughs in free yt premium*
AMATEUR
I'm not weirded out by too much on the food realm, but this definitely blew my mind when I first learned of it. Adds a whole other freaky dimension to an already pretty alien (and beautiful) not-fruit
same, the wasps basically being ants means i wouldn't really care even if they weren't dissolved. At that miniscule size the insect is basically a more palatable grain of sand.
I'm much more scared about the illegal settler colonial occupation of Palestine by the Zionist Regime from which the quoted "scientists" (colonial occupiers who served in the child-murdering IDF) in Adam's video hail than I am from a couple old dead wasps in a fig.
@@swedneck I'll forever see "ant's" as nutritious sand now, thank ^_^
I think the pistachio worms are far worse... :(
fruitn't
You can very easily argue growing unfertilized fruit isn't bad for the tree but evolutionarily beneficial if humans choose to cultivate those trees specifically for their more consistent yield. Even if they're "wasting" energy on non-reproductive figs, there are few evolutionary forces more potent than human agriculture.
People underestimate the evolutionary pressure humans provide and personally I think it's as natural as any other source
Avocados somewhat famously were dispersed by giant ground sloths, all of which went extinct so why do we still have avocados, human intervention.
It is certainly a survival strategy to be liked by humans who often will go out of their way to "pamper" plants we like. (Usually to eat them, but we replant and care for them to assure a stable food supply. So a tree "wasting" energy growing useless fruit is really investing in getting some farmers to come pamper it or its children/clones.)
If you haven't heard of Michael Pollan's work you should check it out. He talks about the "plants that have domesticated humans" hahah.
Sure we be powerful. Until the next bug figure a way around your forever-cloned fig orchard and the never-sexual figs join their banana bros on the road to annihilation by avoiding genetic recombination.
Also the most successful (by numbers) animal species on Earth are Humans and our pets and farms animals.
Wild figs grew in my back yard at my old home and I ate one and it became my favorite fruit related crop. But watching this makes me rethink my life decisions…
Yummy bug, extra nutrients
what most people do not realize are t....ny little wasps that you find in figs are pollinated by those little wasps. without those little wasp there would be no figs or fig newtons ohh give me a figgy pudding no give me a figgy pudding and don't forget the wasps ..
There is nothing like the taste of fresh figs...
@@eitantaub5503 Yea nothin’ better… But now i can’t stop thinking of wasps and i know it’s ok to eat but if i let my relatives know they’ll FLIP when I eat it!
Wow! Informative 👍
I actually found one inside a fig when I was young before I knew about this and thought "that's weird, creepy, and kinda gross," but I just assumed it was some kind of bug that died eating into the fig, picked it out, and ate the rest of the fig. I guess that makes me one of the few people who was actually relieved when they found out it's totally normal for there to be dead wasps inside of figs. 🙃😆
yeah totally normal to eat the bugs!!!!!!! eat them all!!!!
@@lua2wood And live in the pods and own nothing and be happy
Untrue crickets have been known to be bad for human consumption for like 60 years and for the last 30 known to have huge cancer risks
So when u were young you just knew what plant was used in making these? You were pretty smart when u were young!!!
@@Denelix I didn't know why the dead wasp was in there, just found it while eating a whole fig, not a fig Newton, and then later found out that it's how figs are pollinated.
Sounds like free protein to me.
More like bee protein
Sounds like free revenge to me, extra sweet
I mean that a positive way to see it I guess
They are going to start charging for them now that you mention it lmao
@@potatopie4579 lmao he's an optimist
Thanks for getting the point immediately at the beginning of the video. Usually a lot of people try to bury the lead. I really appreciate that. I watched the whole video, good info here especially for someone who knows nothing about this stuff but has eaten a good amount of figs lol.
We probably unknowingly eat so many things that we would consider gross, but ehhh if it tastes good and it’s healthy, is there really a problem
Honey is bee shit, and it's fucking delicious! 😋
I feel like fermentation seems like a weird concept, but damn is it nice to eat yeast farts.
There are maximum standards for bug bits and rat poop and the like in commercial food products and the maximum allowed amount is almost always not zero.
@@mastod0n1 wym almost? it is impossible to take away *everything*
@@Ark_knight0 yeah well I don't like talking in absolutes in situations that I'm not 100% confident in my knowledge
At almost 60 years of age is a wonderful thing that I can learn something new every day
this (and of course I love your channel very much), is one of the most fascinating things I've ever heard
thank you for the education
what an unbelievable story
thank you
@@Ryan07665 what
No worries, Friends. I used to work at a large Fig Picking and Packing Company, here in Central California, (Jura Farms, Fruit Packing). It was my job, to walk around the fig trees in the hot summer mornings and afternoons, take refrigerated figs that had young fruit flies inside, where I would then place [One or Two figs] in a small brown bag, stapled to each fig tree, the tiny fruit flies would come out of the now warm figs, - and begin going from fig blossom to fig blossom, in very much the way We humans use bees to pollinate a variety of trees for fruit, etc. 'Honestly, it''s quite normal for them to do that, as they have done that specific job for probably Millions of years.'
And so: Yes, I'm 100% sure the small fruit flies will end up in the figs as we harvested them, but nobody gave it one thought, as the fruit flies are beneficial little insects that never gave us a second thought. They don't / can't bite, they don't care at all about humans, but they go straight away to their work as I recall, when I was a young man, back during the Summer of 1984. Yup.
In essence: the Fig picking process is labor intensive, the harvesting of figs that are placed into large wooden bins was a little dirty, as both Flies and a few Regular flies would naturally land on the figs outside of the warehouse processing room, - but the end result (Yummy Figs) was actually quite good. Mom used to love em. Grew up with Fig Newtons. No worries here, lol. - ' The Fig Newtons always tasted great! - Nuff Said.' - Peace. \\//
they're wasps not flies
I was just telling my mom about fig wasps yesterday! Perfect timing, now I've gotta show this video to her so we can bond some more over weird bug facts
As a mom, that’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard 😂
Same ,..but I'll have to translate and she'll get dizzy with my delivery 💀💀
So you know, most commercial figs do not have wasps at all. They were cultivated to grow without
Wait you bond with your parents?
how cute!
Glad to see this being talked about here. Parasitoid wasps are a, very weird branch of the Animalia tree. Hoping this gets people interested in learning more about this branch of hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps). Fun fact, those wasps you mentioned breifly are Parasitoid, not true parasites! its weird distinction, but it helps to find them if you want to find them. Good work as always
Good to see another fellow who knows his entomology! Parasitoid wasps are a focal point of my research, and this year we finally implemented a system to rear them in large numbers. The IPM potential of these tiny guys are truly incredible.
@@brown9629 Neat! would love to read an abstract on some research. Sadly most of my studies (college, i do lab work now) was comparative anatomy focused, I just have an enjoyment of herpetology and some entomology
This video was fascinating!
Stop pushing Klaus Schwab's agenda thanks.
@@brainbomb. fr these people love eating the bugs
I think describing inflorescence that way implies that it needs to be inverted but this isn’t the case. Inflorescence simply means multiple flowers on the same stem section. It’s a bit more broad.
I just learned about this after eating some figs from my backyard, and I was very disturbed. thanks for the video, Adam!
Reading this made me audibly gasp
I hope it hasn't turned you off eating figs.
@@kutter_ttl6786 extra protein
@@hits_different What if the wasp gene turn him into Wasp Man.
*"This video made me regret my passion of eating figs. I am no longer satisfied with my views of such, and I will never look at them the same again."*
"Great video Adam! 😁"
This was the most interesting thing I've seen on RUclips.
I've only heard the urban legends about how everyone was eating wasps.
When my mom moved out here in Vegas, she planted a fig tree and it would make fruit 4 times a year. Her favorite way to eat them was to wrap them in prosciutto.
Love your channel, keep up the great content!
She sounds like a neighbor I had in LV names Maria.l, her figs were bomb, and her apricots too
I'm a food scientist and wow i thought i knew alot about food, but Adam you are just next level knowledge
Say what you will about Adam’s culinary abilities; his selection of weird RUclips titles is so good they belong in a museum of their own. I would put this next to “cucumbers are melons and sometimes they explode.”
3:30 Minor nitpick, that's actually a parasitoid, not a parasite! True parasites are detrimental to their host's health, but don't necessarily kill them, while parasitoids kill their host as part of the process.
Parasitoids are a subcategory of parasites. Parasitoid is more accurate, but parasite isn't incorrect.
Ok nerd 🤓
@@Keeki549 This channel is literally about explaining things
@@Keeki549 💀💀💀
@@Keeki549 ok discord moderator
You know that's information I didn't need to know, like EVER, so thankyou Adam.
OMG, I'm now even more sad than I was about losing my first fig tree. Once upon a time, my gran planted a fig which was perhaps the most Northern fig tree in Europe. This is disputed, but whatever. This fig tree bore ripe figs every three or four years, and our feeling about it was that it was about the weather. A few years before gran died, we decided to plant an offspring in another part of the farm, and it flourished. It still does. All was good. But when my gran was dying, and my cousins and I were at the hospital, my ignorant uncle saw it fit to cut down the original fig tree, and also "treat" all the herbs with Roundup.
When we returned to the farm, rosemary, lovage, mint (who the f... can kill mint?), dill, parsley, and thyme was gone as well as the roses, and we have never been able to regrow them because it takes ages to get out the Roundup. And the remaining fig tree is no longer able to finish the fruits. I suppose the fig wasps lived in the old tree.
I've recently posted about this on an other food channel, but never before, and I think it's because its only now, ten years later, I understand the devastating effect my ignorant uncle's actions had. I had never imagined that even today, I can't grow a rosemary bush on a south-facing wall, because there is still Roundup in the ground. Now, I will build raised beds. But goddamit. And think of all the thousands of acres of land that have been treated with Roundup.
Wow
If it makes you feel any better, if you lived in Northern Europe, you did not have the fig wasp. So they were never there to be killed. I grow figs in the Pacific Northwest and I do not have fig wasps. Many fig varieties are self-fruitful. They are referred to as common figs, or ficus carica.
You may be able to take a cutting from the existing plant and grow a clone. However, if the existing plant was grown from seed, then it will not be a genetic copy of the original tree. And may not produce any figs that you'd want to eat.
You may want to look at other sources for your soil conditions, if things still aren't going well after 10 years, because roundup contamination will be almost entirely cleared up after 6 months, for aerobic conditions, or 2.75 years, for anaerobic ones.
Just an FYI. Roundup does not hang around. It decomposes within a couple of days.
what a piece of shit, he came to the garden killed all the plants and poisoned the soil so that nothing will grow anymore.
Jesus Christ why does this piece on figs rock so hard. I love your deep dives and I'm always surprised how much I take away from these. Keep em comin!
Speaking of Jesus Christ, maybe this puts his cursing of the Fig Tree into a different perspective. What if it's a just-so story to explain parthenogenesis and how certain figs have virgin births now, and miss out on that hot wasp on wasp action.
I remember hearing Jean Shepherd tell this story on WOR radio in NYC in the 1970s about learning about wasps in figs from one of his teachers. It freaked me out when I heard this as a kid but I didn’t stop eating Fig Newtons because they were good.
I’ve heard about this before but this was an awesome deep-dive into the actual relationship and process, as well as some excellent macro views! Many thanks, Adam!
its bugs in chocolate too, and the color red for food is made from dead bug blood.
The more you know
(Music sound effect)
i absolutely love figs, we have always had a fig tree in our garden,figs are just amazing
I love figs but their trees are way too big man. We sadly had to cut down our fig tree because it was growing way too big for our yard
I love Israeli figs especially cause the Israeli farmers who grow them water their soil using the blood of the Palestinian families they've murdered to acquire their farmland
this is very true
@@jojomojo508 😂😂😂
@@gohom3882 Israeli detected
Great video! Pleasantly surprised to see something about fig wasps in my feed. Someone may have already commented about this, but I think the wasps pictured at 0:33 and 2:06 are parasitoids of fig wasps in the family pteromalidae. They’re depositing their eggs through the fig so their larvae can feed on the developing fig wasps!
Can we just acknowledge the fact this man is able to make a living by filming himself climbing a tree,picking figs and eating fig newtons while wearing a super mario shirt? I'm not being sarcastic. Obviously theres a lot more going on, but still. I honestly think thats awesome.
So, another example of how capitalism and social media is hurting everyone? Got it.
Well they always said nerds own the future
Eventually everyone is gonna be a streamer and there isn't gonna be anything to stream.
not seeing the part where he climbed the tree
@@nonethelessfirst8519 hollywood ran out of ideas years ago. now it's blow everything up, shoot everything up and show some skin with some hotties and it's a movie. toss in some choreographed fight scenes that would make mike tyson say "uncle" and producers eat it up.
I love the fact that there was a paper published on figs. This is really so cool I’m so glad I clicked on this!
That was quite interesting! I planted a fig tree about 24 yrs ago & now every yr I get tons of figs. It’s a beautiful tree. All kinds of birds & other critters come when it fruits
I lost one of my first teeth biting into a fig Newton and hitting a seed. Had one recently and also noticed there were no seeds, but I dismissed it as just more over processed food. Good to know!
I researched a bit about caprification, essentially it bear the name from the "caprifico" aka the wild fig, that doesn't make edible figs but is loved by wasps.
It wasn't just done in that particular occasion, even if you have native figs but you have an hard time getting fruits you could hang some wild figs stems onto your cultivated one and voila you'll - hopefully - have ton of wasps on your tree.
Ancient romans knew this thing already
On the subject of etymology, the "partheno-" in "parthenocarpic" is derived from the Greek "parthenos", meaning "virgin". Other terms from this root include "parthenogenesis", meaning when an animal conceives offspring without a mate, and Parthenon, the famous temple to Athena in Athens (because Athena, in addition to being the goddess of wisdom, battle strategy, and weaving, was also a virgin goddess.)
I knew there was a reason I stopped eating figs years ago. Thanks for sharing.
The tasty one is fertilized by wasps and the ones without wasps aren't as "tasty" due to lacking fertilized seed giving crunch. Sadge life for a Fig
I love figs.
I don't mind the wasp; figs make me shite like crazy, worse reason IMO. Eating bugs is considered normal in most of the civilized world.
@@nahor88 There's only one civilised world and that's Europe, and it's not considered normal there.
I'm so glad I watched this. I was always afraid of eating figs ever since I heard about the wasp thing, because I had seen a photo (maybe faked) of a fig cut in half with a massive wasp inside. I never wanted to bite into a fig and have that happen.
Yet I did always love fig newtons and remember them being crunchy, too. Sad.
Thanks for helping my brain get over my fear of figs.
Even if full wasps were in figs I would give no shit as long as the ratio is more than like 1 wasp per 20 figs
''You will eat zee bugs'' World Economic Forum
@@NoNORADon911 You will own nothing and you will be happy.
The wasp that do fertilize the figs are very tiny. You almost need a magnifying glass to see them well. So, don't worry. But all figs in the US grown outside of southern California will not have any wasp.
@@cliff5043 So Southern California kept its wasp pollinating fig trees?
Im in croatia visiting my gfs family and every street has fig trees, theyre growing everywhere here!
Its really nice to be able to watch a video like yours then go out "in the real world" and see it in action!
I hate that they plant our trees here in the US to not produce any fruits smh you can find almost NO trees around here with fruits growing on them. They say it’s because they’re hard to keep the walk ways clean with fruit producing trees. Idk... seems like they could feed a lot of people if they did let them grow. But some people will defend their decision not to. So who knows. We love capitalism here & have been brainwashed to believe any other way is “wrong”.
Smh
i’m glad i’m not the only one who noticed that figs aren’t the same anymore. I still eat em sometimes, but it’s not the same
"If we took the dead wasps out it wouldn't be crunchy now would it"
Ah yes -- featuring only the finest baby wasps, freshly flown from Iraq.... lightly killed...
Completely unrelated; that is an absolutely beautiful fig tree.
I'm actually jealous.
I learned a lot from this video, though I knew the wasps were digested. Still never eating wasp figs again.
That's amazing! I was just helping my uncle pick figs earlier and I noticed little bugs on one that I assumed were just gnats, but maybe they were actually wasps!
did you eat the bugs? that is what is most important
So glad you made this, I've been rambling about this to my friends since middle school.
Definitely a hyper focus of mine and so glad to hear more about the lil wasps.
you should hyperfocus on some b*tches
My favorite edutainment channel with a focus on cooking
My parents had a fig tree in our backyard when I was a kid. The figs were purple when ripe. I used to think that all figs were purple, because our tree was the only one I knew about. Now I know differently!
Very informative. Finally learned how figs work. Kinda wacky that nature evolved inverted flowers.
You taught me a few things about figs I did not know! I have, however, purposely eaten Oak Gall wasp larvae, small white grub worm-like larvae that grow inside round “galls” that the parent wasps create on Oak tree branches here in Texas. The larvae taste very much like almonds and are packed with protein.
Here’s a fun fact: To defend themselves against infestation from Gall wasps, and the swollen galls they create for their larvae to live in, oak trees will force large quantities of tannins (tannic acid)-astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules-into the galls. Oak galls are the main source of the tannic acid (C76H52O46 ) and gallic acid (3,4,5-trihydroxybenzoic acid) used to create a famous, historic ink known as Iron Gall Ink, which was used to write not only the oldest known Bible in existence, but also the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, along with thousands of other famous documents. Leonardo da Vinci used iron gall ink to draw most of his famous drawings. Iron Gall Ink is easy (and fun) to make and a super cool, eye opening science experiment you can perform safely with your kids at home. The Townsends channel has a great video on the ink and the process. All this from a small wasp!
Science All The Things!! 🤘😍🤘
I haven’t had a dog newton in many years and I literally can feel how crunchy they are. That’s crazy they don’t have seeds anymore! That crunchy texture was part of the experience.
I find this interesting as growing up in the 2000s i never once experienced a crunchy fig newton and definitely would have been weirded out by one. I'm not opposed to the idea but its just not what i mentally expect from one.
@Don Eli I was going to edit that, but now I can’t because I like your response. :)
Growing up 25+ years ago, I don't ever remember Fig Newtons having seeds in them. Not that I ever ate particularly many of them, but I still distinctly remember the ones I did eat being chewy all the way through.
maybe the ones you ate came from a different farm or farms? i'm not sure where they're all sourced from and i'm not old enough to know what old fig newtons were like
@@lightningkitten This person grew all the way up 25 years ago lmao you talking to a Ouija board bro lmaoooo its a zombie relived.
@@blackleague212 lmao
@@blackleague212 how old are your parents then? Are they too living zombies?
@Forgotten Hope I'm squarely a millennial, not a zoomer. And 25 years is still more than enough time to make significant changes in a recipe. Adam isn't that much older than me, less than a decade.
Such a lucky situation: fig wasps don't live in my country but the figs are still riping - the rain does the job of fertilization, as I heard.
Never knew this, but now I feel vindicated in my hatred of figs.
Love figs,I’ve got five trees. I also love fig rolls and I have noticed a tad of crunchiness with them, but if its waspy that’s fine. Thank you, that was so interesting!
Figs are kind of a big thing where I live, there are lots of fig trees and they’re part of our culture: raw figs, cooked figs, fig cake, fig marmalade, fig pie, fig and cheese and fig with nuts.
That's a lot of figging figs.
Cool shirt!
I never knew about the seeds as a child and remember enjoying the Fig Newtons until I hit that crunch and I nearly got sick from that. I really hated anything that would add a wet crunch in something with a smooth consistency (onions within something soft too). The kid version of myself would be excited for modern Fig Newtons. It wasn't until I was an adult that I had the opportunity to try a whole fig and was hitting that crunch to learn that's normal.
As a hater of wasps, this makes me want to try figs more
You don't hate all wasps, do you? I mean, it's understandable for the absolute B%¤#rds who seem to have a chip on their shoulder and murder in their eye, but harmless fig wasps, just going about their time, or the parasitic wasps that just remove moth larvae from the world? Why would you hate those, except on general principle of 'kin of my enemy'?
Adam Ragusea has entwred the Gizzverse
To me, the most important part is that even if your fig had a wasp in it, it was dissolved and absorbed by the plant. People trying to ick you out usually leave that part off. It also means figs are kinda carnivorous plants which is interesting
Did you catch how he says if its crunchy its got a wasp in it then immediately goes and says its not the actual wasp its a seed. That is so damn confusing I notice this guy makes tons of mistakes..... crazy he has so many subscribers oh well.
@@cmo5807 I mean technically that's not a mistake, right? But I get where you're coming from.
@@cmo5807The crunch means there was a wasp, but the crunch is not from the wasp.
We finally have an answer to why my parent's fig tree isn't yielding any fruit at all. Thank you Adam!!
It’s a damn relief that I’ve only ever known them to be chewy. The manufacturers clearly make sure it stays that way, or else I doubt it would’ve sat well with some people.
Brit here, we used to call Garibaldi biscuits “dead fly biscuits” because that’s what the fruit looked like. Older kids told us they really were dead flies to gross us out, and we in turn, pretended to younger children when it was out time. Ah the power of peer pressure lol.
Hello 👋 I’m really impressed with your comment, if you don’t mind friendship please where are you from?
@@jamespatrick20906 I'm from hell
I love how much of the world i know more about the more i watch these videos.
This was as informational as something I would learn in school or on the Discovery channel growing up back when it had educational programs.
I have a very large 25' tall fig tree in the back , and I harvested about 180lbs of figs off it this year and gave them to a bunch of local people.
By all the pictures I've seen it's either Calimyrna or Adriatic. My tree produced some the size of baseballs this season. It's become my baby / pet project. I need to learn to prune correctly.
Hoping next season I can supply everyone with some great figs.
If a lot of people from the Jain community watches your video, they might yet another thing to add to their Do Not Eat list.
Leaving us to enjoy this wonderful fruit!
I very much doubt that any of this is news to anyone in the Jain community. They already don’t eat fruits with seeds, and figs have sees, so figs are prohibited regardless of wasps or not.
Same with strawberry yogurt. Bugs are used to make that pink colour.
You know, when I first heard this fact, I started to wonder : if this means figs should be classified as carnivorous plants?
Wouldnt it be more of a decomposer than a carnivore? The wasp is already dead
@@ChickentNug I mean the animals that vultures eat are typically dead too, it feels different to me here since the wasp becomes a part of the fruit after, it gets digested
Most commercial figs don't need wasps
@@maythesciencebewithyou yes, but they have the ability to
I don't think so, because as I understand it, the fig just dissolves the dead wasp. I don't think the tree actually gets any nourishment from the wasp, so it's not exactly feeding on it.
Venus flytrap: "I am a terrifying carnivorous plant that devours insects!"
Figs: "KNEEL BEFORE ME, YOU PANSY ASS SCRUB!"
buy the plant base figs bars from costco. they are plant base which meab they grow their figs in an enclosed place because if a wasp is in there it cant be plant base.
Any wasp I see
It's a fig wasp
Pearly guillotine
It's a fig wasp
When the harvest's clean
It's a fig wasp
It's a winged machine
It's a fig wasp
Ficain eating corpses
There's a hornet
In my throooooooooooaaaat
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Did your God know, insects grow in my pome? WHOOOOOOOOOOOO!
searched for this
BIG FIG WASP
Nonagon infinity opens the door!
Adam, I'm sad that you didn't state if you reached out to Nabisco to see if they would tell you if the figs they do use are the seedless variety or if they're just removing the seeds in production. I don't think this would be a trade secret, and there is no harm in asking.
There’s an incredible BBC nature documentary showing the process of fig pollination at a macroscopic level as well the ecosystem that depends on fig trees. It’s called “The Queen of Trees” and I cannot recommend it more.
0:40 "figs just bee like this."
False. Figs wasp like that.
Nobody has ever told me that figs have baby wasps in them and now I'll never unthink about it again.
We love our fig tree. We put up so many jars of fig preserves this year. We did not see any wasp in the figs. The preserves are delicious !
Interesting. Never knew that. My Fig have seeds and crunch, but I haven't seen any fly or wasp being around it. I will pay more attention for the next year.
Nice video. Weirdly enough I knew a little bit about this process through King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. They have a track called Big Fig Wasp. So I had to learn learn more from this video lol
BIG FIG WASP!
Saw the thumbnail and was about to cry then I remembered our version of that food uses dates not figs.
انت سعودي؟
@@magical_blue بحريني
I can thank King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard for reminding and drilling this knowledge into my mind fuzz.
Honestly anytime I hear about wasps in figs I instantly have Fig Wasp stuck in my head. Any wasp I see, it’s a fig wasp…
Also nice username!
I feel like it would be easy to test that theory on whether the ancient fig was human raised or not. They could sequence its genes and then start comparing it to other parthenogenic fig trees around the world to see if they get a match since if their theory is that it's made from clippings, and clippings are just little clones of the parent, if that tree continued to be used then there's a chance that it's genes are still floating around in the parthenogenic agricultural population.
Why is a fig being an inverted flower such a beautiful fact
The box of fig newtons I got 2 days ago still has seeds in them! Makes me wonder why yours doesn't. Cool video otherwise, thanks Adam
Interesting. In Korean, a fig is called a 무화과/muhwagwa, i.e. a flowerless fruit.
Good job RUclips algorithm! I have absolutely no idea why I got recommended this video, but it was soo interesting!
first of all: SUPER AWESOME SHIRT!
secondly: Does the same go for DATES? I heard they might have some bugs in them from time to time? Would love to see a video on that as well :)
Dates are totally different AFAIK; they grow on palms and I think are actually fruit. Note that not all palms are date palms, nor do all similar-looking plants bear edible fruit-certain cycads are poisonous.
@@areit99 aha, I see. But what about insects in them that we might actually eat.
Dried figs are amazing, we dry them cut in half and are sold here everywhere. BTW in Greek the name of fig in plural resembles the most common Russian swear word (which makes every Russian I know, giggle)
I remember the crunchy fig newtons in the late 60s maybe into the 1970s anyway, and the crunch was half of the fun. The delicious taste, and that crunch. Plus finding random seeds in my mouth later.
Hi Adam have you noticed that figs ( like almonds and pineapples) alter your taste temporarily? Maybe you can do a show on why this happens and possibly how to work around it?
I never ate a Fig Newtons growing up. My Great Grandmother had 2 fig trees in her yard. She made fig jam and used it to make “fig bars”. They looked like Newtons. I ate my first Fig Newton as adult. They’re awful. I have Gramma’s handwritten recipe for her fig bars.
Lucky you. Make sure you keep it. Don’t let it get lost. Im halfway tempted to ask for the recipe
@@kumabear3529 I mean, we could just ask.
Ok, Rain-Singer, cough up that recipê.
@@kumabear3529 the sad thing is the main ingredient, flour, has a very imprecise measurement. It calls for “one sifter full”. What the heck is that? And I remember the “cup” she used to measure sugar. It was a green Depression glass tea cup. Unfortunately I don’t have that cup. I do, however, have the tin she stored sugar in. It’s a huge, round tin from the Imperial Candy. I think it’s from the 1890’s. I use it to store her old buttons.
Would you care for sharing that recipe with us?
0:12 every time you say "wasps" my cat freaks out because the ending of wasps sounds like "pspspsp"
Waspspsps
I was just thinking about if figs are considered vegetarian/vegan the other day while eating them lol. Interesting video Adam
Well... There's a way now to ruin one's friendship with a vegan or a way to attempt converting them. 🙃
Some vegans will not eat them because of this. But to me this is silly. It is not like the grower is shoving the wasp inside. It is just a natural process.
@@Cmallon81 unfortunately, silliness and veganism go hand in hand. Nothing against vegetarians, but veganism is unhealthy and misguided, in my opinion, and it's well informed.
@@riveteye93 💯
@@riveteye93 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19562864/ Sorry but you're straight wrong, Vegan diets are proven healthy and perfectly fine for long term consumption. I'm unsure what you mean by misguided, however they are drastically better for the environment and perfectly fine healthwise.
As someone who's eaten raw figs straight off a tree in Louisiana during the summer, this was very interesting to learn about. Lol
Crazy thing is if you have eaten figs off of a tree in America it's almost a guarantee that it was not pollinated by wasp because almost all of our fig trees in America are self-pollinating. This guy just used a clickbait title and did not acknowledge that the pollinating fig trees or way more rare than what we have here in America. You can order one and grow it if you choose but I don't see why when we have the abundance of self-pollinating figs here.
@@DJMerck He does more than acknowledge it at about 4:11 and onwards. The very tree he is standing under is a fig tree with parthenocarpic figs that he states he grew for the purpose of the video. You must not have watched very far in.
@@DJMerck except they aren't self-pollinating, fig pollen is only found in the male fig (caprifig). the fig varieties that don't need pollination do not produce viable seeds.
@@DelusionalMoron ficus carica, are self-pollinating. The fact that you stated this so incorrectly proves all of your information has come from RUclips and maybe Facebook. But good attempt though.
There are some that are pollinated through wasp but there are many that do not need a wasp whatsoever and I actually know this as an absolute fact because I have different varieties growing and we sell them every year. A little real research "not on RUclips" would probably benefit you a good deal.
@@DJMerck I have grown figs for a good part of my life and am part of a fig growing community, so no - my information is not from youtube. If figs were actually self-pollinating, then you'd see wild figs growing everywhere like you do in California. Try taking one of the seeds from the figs you grow and try getting it to germinate. You will not be able to. This is the reason why a lot of serious fig growers keep a caprifig, so they can hand pollinate to breed new trees by seed.
I just saw some Newtons at my local small grocery. Still seedy!
Thanks for that info. I just heard that about the fig wasp earlier this month. I have a couple of fig trees and pretty sure they are partheno..whatchama-call-it varieties. They are only a couple of years old and we have only gotten a few figs off one of them so far. My wife wasn't going to eat them if they had wasp in them. So I had her watch your video and all she said at the end was "Why don't you rock some blue short shorts like Adam?" Still not going to eat the figs.
If you live in America, there are no fig wasps here naturally unless you import them as the fig farmers do here in Cali. So no, you are not eating wasp bits in your home grown fig trees.
Me, a vegan: "I don't know what to think about this"
Adam: "Vegans are ok with this"
Me: "I'm ok with this"
So true 😂 he can change your mind in one second!
Me, a vegan: in theory i am totally ok with this. It's Just Nature nature-ing
Me in practice: ... You know, i never liked these Alien fruits anyway....
Me, I make my own decision and don't just follow the crowd
@@xfhnhhgjbvcfg you always follow a crowd in the end, you can't be the only one who take this or that decision.
@@REMY.C. Speak for yourself
This was really cool, very interesting. Other than the crazy timelines that no human could ever know this was a super cool video. Thank you.
Bruh why have I never heard of this