Wasps on food

[Darandio]

Where do you draw the line?

When it does kill you. Bit late then......

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I have eaten street food in Bolivia and not died though. Where do you draw the line?

When it does kill you. Bit late then......

So you mean, you draw this kind of line...?

 

[Huntergreed]

Not entirely related, but I do once recall a teacher at my school biting into a sandwich and swallowing a wasp by accident, which still makes me wary about eating school food!!

I feel that, whether this is legal or otherwise, staff should try to ensure that their food is kept free from all bugs! If a wasp can come in and walk all over the food, surely a fly could do the same (albeit, the consequences would be potentially much much greater!) Regardless of the insect in question, this is a potential health and safety risk, and is an awful advert for the company (no matter how nice the cake looks, if I see some wasps crawling over it through the window, I will immediately be put off from buying it!

 

[fowler9]

When it does kill you. Bit late then......

So I mean what? Wrap yourself up in your house in bubble wrap to completely eliminate risk? I work in housing and the number of people who seem to feel it is impossible to exist without central heating, or an oven or with having a wasps nest in the garden is incredible. I'm not even ancient, I'm 42. What is wrong with people?

 

[tspaul26]

Anyway the only reason we worry about insects is that we can see them unlike the millions of bacteria, fungal spores, microscopic invertebrates etc. which are floating in the air around us all the time.

Ah, so the Austrian insects are a smokescreen. It's actually the germs we need to be wary of and we all know where they come from: Germany.

 

[DaleCooper]

I wonder how many of us have picked and eaten wild blackberries when out for a walk, I do it a lot at this time of year. Just imagine all the insects, spiders, slugs etc. which would have crawled and slithered over them not to mention their exposure to the bodily fluids of various passing animals. I always lick them clean before eating them.

What about PYO strawberries and people sneakily scoffing a few before having their punnets weighed ("Have you ever had your punnets weighed missus?") of course they are less of a problem because they're probably protected with a film of powerful insecticide.

 

[Howardh]

Probably far more bactreia land on the cake in a millisecond than when a wasp lands! If that bit of the cake is scraped off, job done?

Anyhow, I'd love to know, on average (and especially asleep) how many flies, spiders and other crawly-creepies do we digest in a lifetime?

 

[DaleCooper]

Anyhow, I'd love to know, on average (and especially asleep) how many flies, spiders and other crawly-creepies do we digest in a lifetime?

Not as many as urban myth makers would have us believe.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Not entirely related, but I do once recall a teacher at my school biting into a sandwich and swallowing a wasp by accident, which still makes me wary about eating school food!!

I feel that, whether this is legal or otherwise, staff should try to ensure that their food is kept free from all bugs! If a wasp can come in and walk all over the food, surely a fly could do the same (albeit, the consequences would be potentially much much greater!) Regardless of the insect in question, this is a potential health and safety risk, and is an awful advert for the company (no matter how nice the cake looks, if I see some wasps crawling over it through the window, I will immediately be put off from buying it!

The old "extra wasp on your sandwich, sir?" thing happened to me in Holmfirth a few years ago. I lived to tell the tale of course, just suffered a swollen cheek and a horribly bitter aftertaste.

 

[DaleCooper]

I lived to tell the tale of course

How do we know that?

Here's a tip - when eating a sandwich avoid the bit with black and yellow stripes.

 

[fowler9]

How do we know that?

Here's a tip - when eating a sandwich avoid the bit with black and yellow stripes.

Ha ha ha. I like it.

 

[ComUtoR]

Here's a tip - when eating a sandwich avoid the bit with black and yellow stripes.

Save a thought for those cheese and pudding sandwiches...

 

[DaleCooper]

Save a thought for those cheese and pudding sandwiches...

I'm not sure what pudding is in this context but perhaps I should have said:

... avoid the bit with black and yellow stripes and wings.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I wonder how many of us have picked and eaten wild blackberries when out for a walk, I do it a lot at this time of year. Just imagine all the insects, spiders, slugs etc. which would have crawled and slithered over them not to mention their exposure to the bodily fluids of various passing animals. I always lick them clean before eating them.

There may be a slight flaw with your cunning plan...

 

[Howardh]

Not as many as urban myth makers would have us believe.

Never gone to bed hungry and woken up full? It's OK as long as they don't crawl back out

 

[Bevan Price]

A lot of wasps lay eggs inside other insects; the subsequent grubs grow by eating said insects from the inside. However they are probably too small to cause major damage to humans, but I would avoid food if I thought it might have been contaminated by wasp eggs.

 

[DaleCooper]

A lot of wasps lay eggs inside other insects; the subsequent grubs grow by eating said insects from the inside. However they are probably too small to cause major damage to humans, but I would avoid food if I thought it might have been contaminated by wasp eggs.

This is just scaremongering, everybody reading this thread is thinking of the common wasp (Vespula vulgaris) the familiar black and yellow striped insect. Only the queen of this species lays eggs and then in a carefully constructed nest, the wasps we usually see are foraging workers which do not lay any eggs anywhere. The various species of wasp which lay eggs in insect larvae (not on fruit, cakes nor sandwiches) are solitary creatures which look very different from the common wasp and most people would probably not recognise them, nor refer to them, as wasps.

 

[najaB]

In my capacity as self-styled public relations spokesperson for the family Vespidae ...

This is just scaremongering...

I hope you're being paid well, you are doing a good job!

 

[DaleCooper]

I hope you're being paid well, you are doing a good job!

Not good enough I'm afraid, I forgot to mention that the highly acidic environment of the human stomach will quickly kill and digest any insects, their eggs or larvae, that's what stomachs do. Tapeworms are a different story.

 

[DaleCooper]

I hope you're being paid well, you are doing a good job!

All the caterpillars I can eat.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Tapeworms are a different story.

Pray tell us more about tapeworms in the context of this thread.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

What is the most dangerous....Wasps on food or Stoke on Trent?

 

[ComUtoR]

I'm not sure what pudding is in this context but perhaps I should have said:

... avoid the bit with black and yellow stripes and wings.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=b...8AKHW2VAdsQ_AUICigB&biw=1382&bih=698&dpr=1.25

This is an images link. The product in question is 'Black Pudding' Considering what its made of I think a wasp touching it would be the last of any-ones concerns

 

[Bletchleyite]

What is the most dangerous....Wasps on food or Stoke on Trent?

Croydon.

 

[DaleCooper]

Pray tell us more about tapeworms in the context of this thread.

I'm sorry, my mention of tapeworms was off topic.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=b...8AKHW2VAdsQ_AUICigB&biw=1382&bih=698&dpr=1.25

This is an images link. The product in question is 'Black Pudding' Considering what its made of I think a wasp touching it would be the last of any-ones concerns

I would be quite sanguine about it.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

Whilst in The Philippines, flies, wasps and all sorts were landing and crawling on the food. For them it's the norm, as it became for me. But that's my culture, I was fine and still alive.

 

[Calthrop]

Whilst in The Philippines, flies, wasps and all sorts were landing and crawling on the food. For them it's the norm, as it became for me. But that's my culture, I was fine and still alive.

One gathers that quite often, they turn the tables there...

www.allaboutworms.com/eating-insects-in-the-philippines

 

[Condor7]

It would be a theoretical risk and probably no worse than the consequences of swallowing a fly, which lots of people do without any adverse effect*.


*Old ladies excepted...

Brilliant

 

[Groningen]

It is in the Netherlands always the same story around May every year. There will be a lot of nuisance of every flying small thing. And after the summer it turned out to be a hoax.

 

[fowler9]

Anyone see the story about the lad in Melbourne who got his ankles chewed to bits by some kind of sea flea/mite. Ewwww. Ha ha. I sent a link to a girl in work who is off backpacking next month. I had to say sorry a lot and put her in touch with a mate who has been in Melbourne for about 8 years and never been eaten on the beach.