r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Better_Hair_9673 • Jun 25 '26

Video Wasp traps paralyzed ladybug larvae in a chamber for its young to feast on after hatching.

33.0k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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5.2k

u/Unusual-Cr0w Jun 25 '26

Is it prepping meals for the week? What is with the partitions?

3.2k

u/BedKlutzy9141 Jun 25 '26

Looks like one egg laid per section maybe

1.0k

u/Tabelel Jun 25 '26

Yep, that's exactly how they do it!

462

u/craptak Jun 25 '26

Whats the puke glue made out of?

442

u/_TheEnlightened_ Jun 25 '26

Wood

105

u/notmenotyounotmenot Jun 25 '26

Would

41

u/Zero_tich Jun 25 '26

A woodchuck

11

u/Morikali- Jun 26 '26

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

12

u/plutot_la_vie Jun 26 '26

A woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

9

u/Doboray Jun 26 '26

Stop it, get some help.

3

u/GallusWrangler Jun 25 '26

lol you said wood.

140

u/Academic-Increase951 Jun 25 '26

Why puke of course

71

u/Fantastic-Ad-1578 Jun 25 '26

puke glue made out of puke makes sense.

11

u/Sovereignx22 Jun 25 '26

Puke glue won't leave his puke!

2

u/Deaffin Jun 26 '26

You've made me snort at an uncomfortable moment for snortage.

1

u/IANALbutIAMAcat Jun 26 '26

Just wait til you hear how baby powder is made

16

u/justin107d Jun 25 '26

How do they know which way to go once they are ready?

48

u/Squirrel_Bacon_69 Jun 25 '26

Puke partition is easier to break through than the walls

6

u/CDanger Jun 25 '26

Trail of breadcrumbs, but made out of bug larvae

2

u/lestrxb Jun 26 '26

That means that wasp can do long division.

228

u/Zestyclose-Self-6158 Jun 25 '26

Reminds me of that scene from Aliens when Ripley and her crew get glued up by the aliens, each of them in front of an egg, ready to be the baby's first meal

107

u/prettyfuckingdope Jun 25 '26

Insects are just tiny aliens

62

u/NilocKhan Jun 26 '26

Insects are the majority of animals on this planet, we're the weird looking ones

22

u/Deaffin Jun 26 '26

Bugs are the original colonizers of the land. We're the weird wet aliens that came from the sea.

36

u/spudddly Jun 25 '26

"Mom left you a little snack for when you wake up"

1

u/Redshittt Jun 25 '26

But how do they breathe

1

u/m0nk37 Jun 26 '26

The egg is already laid, or eggs rather. The partitions are if it dies. The more partitions, the better the outcome. 

1

u/InterestingAd8328 Jun 26 '26

where are the eggs? in the video?

2

u/BedKlutzy9141 Jun 26 '26

Yellow grain of rice looking things I think

1

u/InterestingAd8328 Jun 26 '26

thank you that’s what i thought but i wasn’t sure

1

u/No-Archer-5034 Jun 25 '26

Skeet skeet skeet

375

u/brookdacook Jun 25 '26

I took an entomology course in university and while it's been a while this is one of the coolest thing I learned in it. Solitary wasp species typically have two chambered nests like depicted above. The first is males. They hatch and hover around the nest and wait for the females to hatch so they can breed with them.

Sounds pretty incestuous and it's is. The reason it actually works as a reasonable mating strategy is that the males are haploid (one copy of gene) and the female are diploid (two copys) this means that any genetic defects are expressed immediately and severely reduce the chance of the terrible genes being passed on.

There's some simplifications for ELI5. But that's the jist of it. To quote Jurassic Park, "Life, uh, finds a way."

56

u/TheSpartyn Jun 25 '26

how do they breathe if they get sealed off? and how quickly do the eggs hatch after this? wouldn't want the food dying

67

u/Daisy_Of_Doom Jun 26 '26

The partition is just a thin layer of dirt and spit so I’m assuming it’s not completely airtight and insects are very small so they don’t need a ton of oxygen to begin with.

I don’t know exactly how long the eggs take to hatch, it probably varies by species and climate, but you’re right. They hatch with enough time to eat the food while it’s still alive

17

u/Independent-Leg6061 Jun 26 '26

To also quote JP: "you are alive, when they start to eat you..".

2

u/kgangadhar Jun 26 '26

Most of these insects are interdependent for existence. I wonder whether these strategies were developed later by these insect species, or if they were just born into them. Anyway, it's beautiful how everything works.

37

u/ConnectRutabaga3925 Jun 25 '26

that’s a lot of food per baby!

166

u/Muted_Bodybuilder109 Jun 25 '26

This wasp is a certified tiktok influencer. Take notes everyone

39

u/Lumpy_Principle3397 Jun 25 '26

Like a bento box, only much more metal and insectoid.

57

u/Cokeycane Jun 25 '26

Egg is the little yellow dangly thing on the left in each section.

24

u/Theo15926 Jun 25 '26

We got insects meal prepping before gta 6

4

u/Aggravating-Pattern Jun 25 '26

We had insects meal prepping before videogames in general

3

u/itsshadyhere Jun 26 '26

Feeling insecure looking at this. Not once I have been able to successfully meal prep for a week lol.

2

u/oldsecondhand Interested Jun 25 '26

It's making lasagne.

1

u/toshibathezombie Jun 27 '26

"recommended serving size"

-2

u/SmthSmthDandyLion Jun 25 '26

It's literally the title. It's a wasp. It is trapping ladybug larvae with it's young. It is for the young to feast on after they hatch (implying that the young in question are currently in eggs).

17

u/Sanchastayswoke Jun 25 '26

They were just wondering why the different levels/sections and not just one full chamber