What Do Wasps Eat?
By Wespenprofis.ch · Reviewed by:Fachbewilligung Schädlingsbekämpfung VFB-S · Updated: 3 July 2026
At a glance
Wasps feed differently depending on the season. In spring and summer, workers hunt insects such as flies and caterpillars to feed the brood. For themselves, they need sugary food. Once there is no brood left to provision in late summer, they actively seek out sugar from ripe fruit, nectar or sweet foods.
Two menus in a single colony
What a wasp eats depends very much on who the food is meant for. The growing larvae in the nest need protein above all, which the workers bring in as insects: flies, mosquitoes, caterpillars and other small creatures are chopped up and fed straight to them. The adult workers, by contrast, cover their own energy needs mostly with sugar — from flower nectar, for example, or from the honeydew secreted by aphids. This division of labour is what allows a colony to keep growing and stay active throughout the whole season.
Why this changes in late summer
From August onwards the queen produces barely any new eggs, and the last brood grows to maturity. That removes the workers’ main task of hunting insects for hungry larvae. At the same time, their own need for readily available energy remains — and that is exactly when ripe windfall fruit, open sweet drinks and cake on the terrace become particularly attractive. This is not a change of behaviour in the true sense, but the logical consequence of a nest with no more brood to provision.
Useful across the whole season
Looking at the entire life cycle of a colony, the benefits clearly outweigh the nuisance: for weeks on end, wasps actively reduce pests in the garden before they turn into a bothersome sideshow at the coffee table for a few weeks in late summer. Anyone who understands why wasps look for which food at which time of year can avoid conflicts more easily — by collecting windfall fruit promptly and covering drinks outdoors, for instance. The guide Are wasps useful covers more on the ecological benefits of these animals, while the article Why do wasps sting offers further information on their defensive behaviour. For an overview of the topic, see our pillar guide Wasps: the most important facts at a glance, and species can be identified in the species overview.
Frequently asked questions
Do wasps eat meat?
Workers catch insects and small pieces of meat, but they feed these mainly to the larvae in the nest. For themselves, adult wasps prefer sugary food.
Why do wasps sit on fruit in late summer?
As soon as there is no brood left to provision, workers need readily available energy for themselves. Ripe and overripe fruit supplies this sugar in concentrated form.
Do wasps drink nectar too?
Yes. Alongside windfall fruit and sweet drinks, nectar is one of the preferred sugar sources of adult wasps — and it is also the reason why they pollinate flowers.