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If you move into a house (purchase/rent/otherwise) with a fig tree and plan to relandscape. Be very careful. Fig tree roots run very shallow, and even older trees are susceptible to damage to the roots.
I found out the hard way - rototilling an overgrown back yard due to too much grass, weeds, bulbs, etc. The 'till chomped through two or three large surface roots (Be careful when gardening/redoing a yard.
Ripe figs are delicious, and knowing that they've also, potentially killed a wasp - man's greatest enemy - only makes their nectar sweeter to my tongue.
1.) Wasps as man's greatest enemy? Really?
If we were being poetic, here, then I'd say that Man's greatest enemy is Man themselves, but this is HN, so I won't. For a runner up, I would at least choose an animal that can actually kill a healthy human, rather than one that and annoy a healthy human and kill a subset with allergic reactions of venom.
2.) There are a lot of species of wasp. According to wikipedia, 160,000. Not all of them will sting, or even can sting humans. Fig wasps count among them. There are quite a few wasps that are beneficial, in that they predate upon insects that are slightly more annoying than the wasps themselves.
3.) Nectar is produced (generally) by flowers, to attract pollinators. By design, it's easily accessible by insects, and not protected by the rind of a fruit. The juice of a fruit is just juice, not nectar.
Okay, take about 8 of them.
And take 8 strips of thick-cut, maple-smoked, peppered organic bacon, the best you can find.
Wrap the fig in the bacon, secure with a toothpick, and place on a pan.
Roast at 425F for about 25 minutes, checking after about 15 minutes.
I assure you, you will not be disappointed.
Ripe figs are delicious, and knowing that they've also, potentially killed a wasp - man's greatest enemy - only makes their nectar sweeter to my tongue.
The knowledge of enclosed vespine corpses just adds one more item to my growing list of things I hate about fig trees, of which I have two. Two fig trees are at least one and probably two fig trees too many. Too much pruning is required because spring growth is extensive. Too much fall raking is required because there's a ton of foliage too. But the real pain in the ass is harvesting. Figs really have to ripen on the…
According to a comment in the original post, majority of commercial ones do not contain insects:
"Only some kinds of figs (so called 'Smyrna' types) are pollenated by wasps. The vast majority of figs eaten come from varieties that produce fruit parthenocarpically. It is highly unlikely that the fig you ate at the supermarket was of a variety pollenated by wasps: most north american commercial figs are not."
http://scienceblogs.com/oscillator/2010/09/edible_symbiosis....
I chose to believe this explanation :)
At first glace it seemed like this species of wasp was inbreeding. But after reading a Wiki article [1], it seems like different female wasps can lay eggs in a single fig. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fig_wasp#Life_cycle
Take a fig. Okay, take about 8 of them. And take 8 strips of thick-cut, maple-smoked, peppered organic bacon, the best you can find. Wrap the fig in the bacon, secure with a toothpick, and place on a pan. Roast at 425F for about 25 minutes, checking after about 15 minutes. I assure you, you will not be disappointed.
Hence why I stopped eating figs.
If you are squeamish and like figs, this may comfort you. According to a comment in the original post, majority of commercial ones do not contain insects: "Only some kinds of figs (so called 'Smyrna' types) are pollenated by wasps. The vast majority of figs eaten come from varieties that produce fruit parthenocarpically. It is highly unlikely that the fig you ate at the supermarket was of a variety pollenated by wasp…
There is an amazing amount of wildlife in a wasp pollinated fig. If you break one open, all sorts of interesting stuff crawls out, not just immature wasps, but also a lot of organisms that prey on the wasps.