Swarms of angry drunk wasps are on the rampage in the UK Pests experts have said the wasps “can’t handle their booze”

Swarms of “tanked up” wasps have been going on drunken rampages around the UK after becoming intoxicated on rotten fruit.

Despite a diet normally consisting of flies and other insects, the wasps have resorted to eating decaying fruit which is turning them very angry, and very drunk.

The attacks have already reportedly hospitalised a pair of one year old twins in Louth, Lincolnshire, after they were stung in the face during a visit to the park.

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Lack of food forcing wasps to change diet

It is all down to the insect’s biological makeup.

The Sussex Wildlife Trust explains that because of an anatomy restriction that limits what they can digest, adult wasps are unable to digest the food they catch. Instead, the wasps chew up their food and feed it to the larvae (young insects) who then produce a sugar rich spit which they can eat.

But because the old queen has stopped laying eggs for the season, the adult workers have no access to larvae and are instead gorging on any sugary treats they can find – including rotten fruit and fizzy and alcoholic drinks.

Drunk wasps become more aggressive

Pests experts have said the wasps “can’t handle their booze” though, and as a result are falling into a drunken sting rage and attacking everything in sight.

Pest control expert Shane Jones, who runs Ridtek Pest Control based in Basingstoke, said: “They are really aggressive at this time of year.

“And because of the cold winter, the wasp season started about six weeks earlier. Wasps have built absolutely massive nests and, now that all the larvae have grown up and the queen has stopped laying eggs, the colonies have a workforce with nothing to do – and nothing to eat.

“So they go down to the pub, obviously.

“Wasps can’t handle their booze, so they get tanked-up and fighty – like lager louts.”

This summer’s heatwave has also seen a dramatic increase in wasp numbers around the UK.