Figs have tiny dead wasps inside them (but they're ok to eat)

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2006 journal article on 11,200-year-old parthenocarpic fig find Jordan River site: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s...
Scholarly response to the above article, arguing the find is not necessarily evidence of deliberate cultivation: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s...
1979 article in the journal California Agriculture on caprification of Smyrna-type fig trees: calag.ucanr.edu/archive/?type...
A useful history of fig cultivation from the University of Florida: edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication...
A delightful (and extensive) old blog post on figs and fig wasps from the now-retired Palomar College botany professor Dr. Wayne Armstrong www2.palomar.edu/users/warmst...

[@PedanticAntics]

Scientists have shown that over the course of a year, on average, about eight figs crawl into your mouth at night while you sleep.

[@jojomojo508]

Israeli scientists have shown that you can murder children as long as they're Palestinian

[@ShadowRulah]

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.

[@PedanticAntics]

@@ShadowRulah you don't get to fig-pick the data to support your agenda.

[@leetri]

"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

[@PedanticAntics]

@@leetri fig news, I don't buy it!

[@iamnoone21]

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

[@charlespentrose7834]

A lot of sci-fi is inspired be weird (to us) things in nature.

[@jojomojo508]

That's just Alabama

[@MuzikBike]

Reality is often more terrifying than fiction.

[@PedanticAntics]

Underrated comment 👏

[@paddington1670]

@@jojomojo508 damnit beat me to it.

[@glenmorrison8080]

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.

[@kimberlypatton9634]

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]

BoTaNiSt HeRe 😂

[@glenmorrison8080]

@@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.

[@ciarancarville7730]

@@traceyevans2757 ViRGiN HeRe 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@insertepiknamehere3149]

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…

[@mariotheundying]

Yummy bug, extra nutrients

[@drewmurdaugh6264]

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]

There is nothing like the taste of fresh figs...

[@insertepiknamehere3149]

@@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!

[@atverde]

Wow! Informative 👍

[@banditnosey]

“Figs have tiny wasps inside them” can be said to the same rhythm as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

[@Azubi_Meatball4349]

Flowers in a green skin, figgy power

[@pennyforyourthots]

Damn. This is the statement of all time.

[@michaelfranciotti3900]

God I love the internet...

[@zhippidydoodah]

Wasplettes in a fig fruit, bzzz bzzz power

[@TommyGuy1111]

Dead wasps in a fig fruit!

[@rin_etoware_2989]

since i learned that the fig essentially dissolves the wasp inside it, that just made figs sound more monstrous to me

[@deepakhiranandani6488]

Yes. Me too, sort of. A bit creepy, it seems.

[@hamburger512]

Extra protein

[@yurirodriguez888]

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.

[@apw9929]

I think the wasps are fine with it

[@jaspervanheycop9722]

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.

[@ToddsDiscGolf]

Thanks man, you cured my phobia of eating wasps in figs! I’m so relieved to hear that they dissolve

[@lonalxaia]

U vill eatz zee bugz.

[@DJMerck]

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

[@TunaIRL]

@@DJMerck And you only had to watch the video a little further to see that he talks about that. Amazing

[@DJMerck]

@@TunaIRL no thanks...

[@myusername3689]

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.

[@Vegeta1423]

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.

[@wtfserpico]

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.

[@Tariqali-bj5hm]

Lol

[@arina4030]

honestly i love it

[@aerynstormcrow]

My newtons I had tonight had seeds. And the crunch.

[@alexcarter8807]

The fig absorbs the female wasp ... so you won't find a wasp in a fig

[@wtfserpico]

@@alexcarter8807 The waspy-bits part was a joke, the crunchy seedy part wasn't. They simply are better with seeds.

[@catylynch7909]

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!

[@jamescanjuggle]

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

[@imstupid880]

Livermore is a great place to be, good wine country

[@shanemelott3131]

This reads like something from a novel

[@prometheus5770]

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

[@Hephera]

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

[@sonialam-karunaratna4135]

I'm a food scientist and wow i thought i knew alot about food, but Adam you are just next level knowledge

[@jilligain3409]

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

[@Merlmabase]

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

[@swedneck]

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.

[@jojomojo508]

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.

[@SuperN0vaNexus]

@@swedneck I'll forever see "ant's" as nutritious sand now, thank ^_^

[@katarinajanoskova]

I think the pistachio worms are far worse... :(

[@autumnwitchmaple]

fruitn't

[@matthiasmohr8138]

Sounds like free protein to me.

[@xFionaWafflesx]

More like bee protein

[@traphimawari7760]

Sounds like free revenge to me, extra sweet

[@potatopie4579]

I mean that a positive way to see it I guess

[@yvanthedrakon]

They are going to start charging for them now that you mention it lmao

[@geeked24-7]

@@potatopie4579 lmao he's an optimist

[@doubledrats235]

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.

[@angelbabycards3595]

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. \\//

[@ZombieWilfred]

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. 🙃😆

[@wood7395]

yeah totally normal to eat the bugs!!!!!!! eat them all!!!!

[@katie7748]

​@@wood7395 And live in the pods and own nothing and be happy

[@Chevalier_knight]

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

[@Denelix]

So when u were young you just knew what plant was used in making these? You were pretty smart when u were young!!!

[@ZombieWilfred]

@@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.

[@molestingfood]

Hey Adam, it's weird that your box of fig newton's didn't have seeds. Because the other week I got a box and I'm 90% sure it had the seeds

[@HuginMunin]

Could be different regional sourcing, different moments in the harvest cycle, etc. There are more regional differences in industrial food products than people think.

[@ballboys607]

I've had mixed results, some packages have no seeds at all and some are like 20% seeds

[@clownjev]

fr

[@gagemonster555]

Yet I have never had a fig newton with seeds, only ever without, and across the last 25~ years.

[@slayerfox2]

Ah.. he got the Soft & Chewy, not the Classic.

[@KingMasadaX]

You know that's information I didn't need to know, like EVER, so thankyou Adam.

[@OGSpacely555]

This was as informational as something I would learn in school or on the Discovery channel growing up back when it had educational programs.

[@johnr6087]

Say what you will about Adam’s culinary abilities; his selection of weird KZbin 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.”

[@Gamayun.]

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

[@BknMoonStudios]

Honey is bee shit, and it's fucking delicious! 😋

[@SirEmrik]

I feel like fermentation seems like a weird concept, but damn is it nice to eat yeast farts.

[@mastod0n1]

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.

[@finallycanchangethenamenot359]

@@mastod0n1 wym almost? it is impossible to take away *everything*

[@mastod0n1]

@@finallycanchangethenamenot359 yeah well I don't like talking in absolutes in situations that I'm not 100% confident in my knowledge

[@julesann1773]

Just wow! So much information i never thought possible!

[@Kokum11]

Thank you! I haven’t eaten figs since learning about the wasps a few years ago. Now I will go back to enjoying them. Great video.

[@irreleverent]

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.

[@KaitouKaiju]

People underestimate the evolutionary pressure humans provide and personally I think it's as natural as any other source

[@jasonreed7522]

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.)

[@KalebPeters99]

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.

[@SansBalance]

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.

[@GreenBlueWalkthrough]

Also the most successful (by numbers) animal species on Earth are Humans and our pets and farms animals.

[@jfrancium]

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

[@seitanbeatsyourmeat666]

As a mom, that’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard 😂

[@toqa6735]

Same ,..but I'll have to translate and she'll get dizzy with my delivery 💀💀

[@maythesciencebewithyou]

So you know, most commercial figs do not have wasps at all. They were cultivated to grow without

[@haruyanto8085]

Wait you bond with your parents?

[@elhatesallofyou]

how cute!

[@5BIRDOG5]

This was absolutely fascinating! New sub!

[@karenparikh4045]

This was very interesting. Good quality content. I learned a lot, thanks!

[@dumptrck9285]

I just learned about this after eating some figs from my backyard, and I was very disturbed. thanks for the video, Adam!

[@moesalamander7012]

Reading this made me audibly gasp

[@kutter_ttl6786]

I hope it hasn't turned you off eating figs.

[@jonboy9734]

@@kutter_ttl6786 extra protein

[@gorilladisco9108]

@@hits_different What if the wasp gene turn him into Wasp Man.

[@peanutcake.]

*"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! 😁"

[@Gregs_World]

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

[@angelquizhpe2473]

@@Ryan07665 what

[@k.kdowning3284]

Thanks for telling, truth will set you free

[@poopmcgee501]

I love that crunch effect of some figs

[@americancheese7383]

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.

[@DoremiFasolatido1979]

So, another example of how capitalism and social media is hurting everyone? Got it.

[@Brandon-bc5um]

Well they always said nerds own the future

[@nonethelessfirst8519]

Eventually everyone is gonna be a streamer and there isn't gonna be anything to stream.

[@snakejazz]

not seeing the part where he climbed the tree

[@id10t98]

@@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.

[@ploegdbq]

"If we took the dead wasps out it wouldn't be crunchy now would it"

[@lwcarr3879]

Ah yes -- featuring only the finest baby wasps, freshly flown from Iraq.... lightly killed...

[@Z__K217]

Adam. Thank you for this. Kind regards.

[@dieselgrandpa4181]

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.

[@Ophidia_Lore]

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

[@brown9629]

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.

[@Ophidia_Lore]

@@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

[@ddacoe0]

This video was fascinating!

[@brainbomb.]

Stop pushing Klaus Schwab's agenda thanks.

[@wood7395]

@@brainbomb. fr these people love eating the bugs

[@ScreamingSicilian70]

This was the most interesting thing I've seen on KZbin. 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!

[@starsonapollo5281]

She sounds like a neighbor I had in LV names Maria.l, her figs were bomb, and her apricots too

[@alexcarter8807]

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.

[@killereria9945]

I love figs and fig newton’s so this was super cool to learn about

[@mumimor]

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.

[@toqa6735]

Wow

[@reppy]

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.

[@taylormallory8705]

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.

[@frequentlycynical642]

Just an FYI. Roundup does not hang around. It decomposes within a couple of days.

[@froschreiniger2639]

what a piece of shit, he came to the garden killed all the plants and poisoned the soil so that nothing will grow anymore.

[@savannaha5038]

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.

[@complainer406]

Parasitoids are a subcategory of parasites. Parasitoid is more accurate, but parasite isn't incorrect.

[@Keeki549]

Ok nerd 🤓

[@deductionsdiary105]

@@Keeki549 This channel is literally about explaining things

[@coolcatcastle8]

@@Keeki549 💀💀💀

[@yasirahmed1574]

@@Keeki549 ok discord moderator

[@tiazadobbs7475]

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 !

[@davidvincent8929]

BRILLIANT. THANK YOU. FIG WASPS.

[@hephie]

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!

[@jakeaurod]

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.

[@Faraonqa]

i absolutely love figs, we have always had a fig tree in our garden,figs are just amazing

[@bd-fb1ul]

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

[@jojomojo508]

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

[@clownjev]

this is very true

[@blueberry4082]

@@jojomojo508 😂😂😂

[@jojomojo508]

@@gohom3882 Israeli detected

[@Darkmattermonkey77]

I knew there was a reason I stopped eating figs years ago. Thanks for sharing.

[@lilblkrose]

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

[@DistractedDaisy]

I love figs.

[@nahor88]

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.

[@SF-lf5cu]

thank you this was great. well done

[@PlanetRylosIV]

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!

[@blackleague212]

its bugs in chocolate too, and the color red for food is made from dead bug blood. The more you know (Music sound effect)

[@verabaked]

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.

[@wood7395]

you should hyperfocus on some b*tches

[@dudester873]

This was interesting information and I love to eat figs; thank you for posting this 👍.

[@mikesmith1910]

WOW! This is really educational!

[@LydiAtheistLady]

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!

[@jamescanjuggle]

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!

[@kay-collins]

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

[@themiddlepath1516]

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!

[@prashanttrivedi2537]

One of kind information. Very nice👍

[@Snuzzled]

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.

[@Rob526]

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

[@NoNORADon911]

''You will eat zee bugs'' World Economic Forum

[@katie7748]

​@@NoNORADon911 You will own nothing and you will be happy.

[@cliff5043]

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.

[@anaz7603]

@@cliff5043 So Southern California kept its wasp pollinating fig trees?

[@incogneat0901]

My grandma had lots of plans in her garden, but the thing that I miss more than anything else were her fig trees and the fig preserves she made. she made enough to have them year round and I swear they had seeds in them.

[@PeterTeamExtreme]

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.

[@BuddhaBeanie]

Very cool! Something new I learned today.

[@jaredbush1866]

Completely unrelated; that is an absolutely beautiful fig tree. I'm actually jealous.

[@Dimension640]

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

[@OptimusPhillip]

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.)

[@TonyAlbera]

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.

[@Chance57]

Fig Newtons were one of my favorite treats that I only ever got when I was at my grandma's. I've never actually bought some myself and my mom doesn't like them so there was never any at the crib. You mean to tell me they don't have that little crunch anymore? I haven't had one in probably 10 years now, but I don't know if I'll ever try them again if they're not as good as I remember and lacking that little texture surprise.

[@benbaxter2061]

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!

[@sarahhardy8649]

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.

[@jamespatrick20906]

Hello 👋 I’m really impressed with your comment, if you don’t mind friendship please where are you from?

[@pithepieoverlord4861]

@@jamespatrick20906 I'm from hell

[@jeffro5032]

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.

[@DMTInfinity]

*Fascinating..!*

[@needamuffin]

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.

[@lightningkitten]

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

[@blackleague212]

@@lightningkitten This person grew all the way up 25 years ago lmao you talking to a Ouija board bro lmaoooo its a zombie relived.

[@lightningkitten]

@@blackleague212 lmao

[@Albedo_vsp]

@@blackleague212 how old are your parents then? Are they too living zombies?

[@needamuffin]

@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.

[@benrybczynski5798]

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!

[@blackleague212]

did you eat the bugs? that is what is most important

[@ameliawilder28]

Same with strawberry yogurt. Bugs are used to make that pink colour.

[@DemonzSlayer49]

Nice i like hearing that wasps mate with their siblings, makes me something to make more fear of

[@MrBcardinal35]

As a hater of wasps, this makes me want to try figs more

[@Finwolven]

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'?

[@astrokits]

We finally have an answer to why my parent's fig tree isn't yielding any fruit at all. Thank you Adam!!

[@ThorTyrker]

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.

[@AkiRakuFuji]

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

[@Nettsinthewoods]

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!

[@exploshaun]

Very informative. Finally learned how figs work. Kinda wacky that nature evolved inverted flowers.

[@Dave3Dman]

The number 1 top video on the internet that nobody needed or wanted. Im super annoyed at the KZbin algo for even showing this to me and allowing me to see the title

[@davfar459]

As someone who's eaten raw figs straight off a tree in Louisiana during the summer, this was very interesting to learn about. Lol

[@DJMerck]

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.

[@ImpishKate]

@@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.

[@DelusionalMoron]

@@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.

[@DJMerck]

@@DelusionalMoron ficus carica, are self-pollinating. The fact that you stated this so incorrectly proves all of your information has come from KZbin 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 KZbin" would probably benefit you a good deal.

[@DelusionalMoron]

@@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.

[@hans3331000]

I love how much of the world i know more about the more i watch these videos.

[@bfc9467]

Never knew this, but now I feel vindicated in my hatred of figs.

[@way9883]

interesting to see that adam also made a video about this! the first time i found out about fig's pollination was from @TRUE FOOD TV video on their How Does It Grow series about fig. (for anyone who see my comment i recommend you to watch it, the fig video, or all of them tbh. very informative!)

[@willt3223]

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.

[@cyberherbalist]

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!

[@PureAsbestos]

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

[@cmo5807]

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.

[@PureAsbestos]

@@cmo5807 I mean technically that's not a mistake, right? But I get where you're coming from.

[@darkhelmet12e47]

​@@cmo5807The crunch means there was a wasp, but the crunch is not from the wasp.

[@Kerrfuffle]

Saw the thumbnail and was about to cry then I remembered our version of that food uses dates not figs.

[@magical_blue]

انت سعودي؟

[@Kerrfuffle]

@@magical_blue بحريني

[@ahmetrefikeryilmaz4432]

I am confused as to what actually is Smyrna fig. I google it and see many fig species that are vastly different than each other. I was inclined to say that what we call "bardacık" should be the Smyrna fig you are talking about but it doesn't seem to be the case. I live in İzmir so I am kind of right at the middle of it. Smyrna is the transliteration of the Greek name of the city which is pronounced something like "ismir" or "ysmyr", both i's as in the initial i of the word "indefinite".

[@Hijodelaisla]

"actually"

[@ahmetrefikeryilmaz4432]

@@Hijodelaisla so?

[@umamifan]

@@Hijodelaisla Shut.

[@DahVoozel]

Blooming internally was my high-school experience.

[@JohannGambolputty22]

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.

[@jasonreed7522]

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.

[@JohannGambolputty22]

@Don Eli I was going to edit that, but now I can’t because I like your response. :)

[@annabeckman4386]

Wow....... this was fascinating

[@UtilemUnus]

I also looked fig Newtons growing up and I swear they used to taste a whole lot better and I remember the crunch too!

[@DukeOfArrakis]

I loved fig rolls as a kid! I have to get some more!!!!

[@munjee2]

You know, when I first heard this fact, I started to wonder : if this means figs should be classified as carnivorous plants?

[@ChickentNug]

Wouldnt it be more of a decomposer than a carnivore? The wasp is already dead

[@munjee2]

@@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

[@maythesciencebewithyou]

Most commercial figs don't need wasps

[@munjee2]

@@maythesciencebewithyou yes, but they have the ability to

[@ErikHinrichsen]

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.

[@Rebelistic]

Knowing about them not using fig wasp is so calming. I just can't handle the thought of eating wasp nutrients

[@LinkFan2202]

“And there’s nothing dangerous or unnatural about it, figs just be like this.” I’m sold. 😂

[@jackielinde7568]

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.

[@DarkGT]

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.

[@aecusregen4614]

Interesting how I just, an hour ago, saw a post about this on facebook and now I see this recommended.

[@Grump.y-OldMan]

Awesome video.