Wasps and Male Stuffing
As a male wasp, their duties are to eat, grow, occasionally help to protect the nest when the females are out shopping for food and finally to mate, then take off to party. But, when males idly hanging around the nest before leaving to do the mating game, female paper wasps seize the males and stuff them headfirst into unfilled cells in the nest, seemingly trying to keep them from pilfering food intended for female larvae. After imprisoning a male, the female worker normally keeps him incarcerated for up to 6 minutes, by pushing on his soft abdomen and threatening to sting. Male-stuffing, occurs seconds after females returned from shopping signifying that they are stopping the males from getting first or second crack at the food. Scientists believe this behavior is genetic, not an irritation at the males’ panhandling ways. Female workers might be trying to tip the sex ratio of the nest in their favor as they will feed their larval sisters with a freshly killed caterpillar, rather than their brothers. This practice doesn’t harm the males, but it does produce larger females who are more likely to survive the winter.
gogreenpestcontrol.ca Ladner Tsawwassen Delta B.C. Randy Bilesky
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/wasps-male-stuffing-randy-bilesky?published=t
http://www.delta-optimist.com/opinion/blogs/blog-wasps-and-male-stuffing-1.20287346
