Are there bugs in fig newtons

By: Molly Beauchemin October 21, Yes, we were too, when we first found out. Photo: Andreana Bitsis. Most Popular. Related Articles. How to Forage for Fresh Spring Water. Wash the figs well. Control point 1 of 3 or 4. Look for any impurities on the peel, remove the opening at the bottom of the fig with a little round pulp, cut the fig in half, turn it over and check that it is not dirty.

Remove the outer leaves. Most commercial figs, such as those you buy at the store, are grown without wasps. Some species of figs grown for human consumption have figs that ripen without pollination.

It is also possible to induce plants to ripen figs without wasps by spraying them with plant hormones. Ficus carica has two sexual forms, the male Caprifig and the female tree edible fig. Caprifig is monoecious [d. It is functionally male because it produces pollen. Edible figs contain only long-stemmed female flowers. While most figs are tropical, there are two types of fig wasps in North America.

The 1. To pollinate the plant, a female wasp enters an immature male fig not the one we eat and lays eggs there. When females decide on a plant, they hatch, release pollen from native figs along with their future babies, and it all starts all over again. In fact, figs produce an enzyme called ficain also known as ficin that digests dead wasps, and figs absorb nutrients to produce ripe fruit and seeds.

Despite competition from other Newtons, Fig Newton is still a very popular cookie selection. They are also very healthy. So the fig blooms inside its pod. As you know, flowers need to be pollinated so that they can reproduce, but since a fig's flower is hidden inside itself, that means its pollinator — in this case, the fig wasp — needs to crawl inside the fig to bring the pollen directly to the flower.

This relationship with the special wasps and the figs is, as the video above explains, mutually beneficial since both the fig and the wasp need each other to successfully reproduce. In biology, this kind of relationship is referred to as mutualism. Here's the life cycle: A young fig tree produces inedible male figs, called caprifigs, which produce pollen.

The tree also produces female figs that grow and bloom inside their separate pod, where wind or bees can't pollinate them as they do other flowers. Female wasps know they need to get inside a fig to lay their eggs, so they crawl inside both male and female figs to try to do that. The female wasp burrows inside the fig through a narrow opening called an ostiole.

If she arrives in a male fig, she is able to lay her eggs in an ideal environment and then dies. Her eggs hatch, with males hatching first they are blind and flightless and they mate with their female counterparts. The male wasps then burrow a tunnel out of the caprifig, and the females fly out, full of fertilized eggs and carrying pollen, starting the cycle anew. Between tips from friends on Facebook and Twitter, browsing other blogs and perusing good old cookbooks, I learned a lot.

Lisa suggested a sandwich involving goat cheese, arugula and sliced figs, and another friend sent a link to a recipe for grilled figs with honey and ginger. All of these things sound amazing; what to try first? I know too much about what's inside," she said.

Which, of course, sent me into a tizzy of Googling and guessing. I remembered a rumor I heard as a kid about there being ground-up bugs in Fig Newton filling—was that it?