Parasitic Love Vine mummifies Parasitic Wasps – all at the expense of the Oak tree

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Scientists have discovered the first example of a parasitic plant attacking a parasitic insect on a common host plant. Love vine, a parasitic plant, feeds off oak trees as it climbs and then attacks tumor-like growths made by gall wasps. Parasitic gall-forming wasps use a mixture of venom and proteins to help grow nurseries for their eggs on the underside of newly growing oak leaves. Inside the gall, the larval wasp feeds on nutrients drawn from the tree. The love vines find the galls and attaches to the wasp inside mummifying it and begins to absorb the nutrients that the larvae was using. The love vines attack larger than average galls to draw more energy from them. So, one parasitic insect (wasp) is being attacked by another parasitic plant (love vine) which feeds off of the wasp’s attachment to the host plant, all this activity is harmful to the host plant. It is theorized that this may lead to new approaches to pest control in agriculture and possibly fighting cancer.

https://gogreenpestcontrol.ca/parasitic-love-v…-of-the-oak-tree/

gogreenpestcontrol.ca Ladner Tsawwassen Delta B.C. Randy L. Bilesky BsF CPA

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/parasitic-love-vine-mummifies-wasps-all-expense-oak-randy-bilesky/?published=t

https://business.google.com/posts/l/09867655829811115361?hl=en-CA&utm_source=google&utm_medium=MerchantPanelCreatePostAction&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjTxvSYgIHdAhUKiVQKHXi-AtUQ47sCMAB6BAgFEAc

https://www.delta-optimist.com/opinion/blogs/blog-parasitic-love-vine-mummifies-parasitic-wasps-1.23408959