On our final berry picking trip in the middle of August we wanted to fetch the last harvest of blueberries for the year. We knew it was late but the websites for the farm we intended to go to showed berries still being available. In hindsight one has to wonder if indeed the webpage was current. When we arrived, it was clear the place was already deserted and a big sign proclaimed that the farm was closed. Since it is quite a drive to get there, we decided to at least take a look and so we marched into the first row. It was immediately apparent that indeed it was late (too late?). One was surrounded by the smell of fermenting fruit from all the berries that had fallen to the ground. There were some berries on the vines – many super soft but some just about okay or tolerable. So, we went on picking very selectively. As I was doing so, I noticed that in the bushes around me there were ample of insects swarming around – yellow jackets (or wasps?) but also lots of bees. Upon closer look they were crawling over the super-ripe berries and clearly eating the flesh of the berries – in fact one could notice that many of the extra ripe ones looked cut open and that is where the bees and yellow jackets focused on. It became clear that this also presented a challenge for the pickers, since when one reached in and stripped off or picked selectively the good and still intact berries, the bees and yellow jackets were not always visible. I will say that I did not get stung, but my wife did. By my observation, for as long as one approached a vine with a gentle gesture they eventually flew off to another spot. The interesting question though was – how come bees are eating fruit – specifically blueberries. I had long known that yellow jackets eat fruit, one of my early childhood lessons. Since they do focus on the fruit that has fallen off the tree and is laying on the ground picking up such fruit came with the risk of being stung. Back in the day our grandmother sent us to collect these fruits on occasion to make apple or pear sauce. I was under the impression that bees live off nectar from flowers and I also knew that in the winter they are being fed with sugar in lieu of the honey they store, and that we humans quietly extract from under them. So, I went online and checked if other people had made a similar observation and indeed turns out that this topic is still the subject of scientific debate. There is agreement that the observations confirm that bees eat fruit juice, but it is not clear if they have the tools to open a fruit given their normal activities. I would say that there would have been ample smashed berries on the ground but that is not where they were. I noticed though. that there were always a mix of yellow jackets and bees. As it turns out, the standing theory is that the yellow jackets actually cut the fruit open. If you have seen them chisel meat from a larger piece on your plate, then you cannot have any doubts about their ability to slice open a blueberry. It is then that bees take advantage of that access point and suck out juice from the fruit. Since I gained this knowledge after we returned home, I could not submit these theories to a closer practical observation but it sounds plausible and explains their large presence in the first place!
(Note: We picked a few buckets of blueberries over an extended period! They ultimately went into the pot for blueberry jam, which turned out to be really good given the over-ripeness of the fruit)