So maybe there is, after all, a point to wasps....

The blighters spoil one's summer outside and are a danger when harvesting grapes, but it seems wasps have a hitherto unknown role in winemaking...

Social wasps are a Saccharomyces mating nest

Researchers have found that the guts of wasps serve as environmental alcoves in which yeasts (from the same and different species) can meet and mate. The existence of various inter- and intra- specie hybrids is an indication that yeasts regularly mate and reproduce through their sexual lifecycle in nature. However, the place where this mating and recombination take place in nature has not been identified yet... until now. This recently published study demonstrates that the intestines of wasps favours the mating of Saccharomyces strains – more so than laboratory created conditions. It also promotes the hybridisatrion of S. cerevisiae and S. paradoxus.

Read more at http://winetech.co.za/Media/Default/News/Winetech%20Scan%20January%202016-2.pdf

Hi Peter,
“Gut Fermentation Syndrome”- Back in 2013 a 61 year old man admitted himself into a Texas hospital complaining about feeling drunk all the time without taking a sip of any alcoholic beverage. At first they just assumed he was a “closet alcoholic”, but then
“Gastroenterologists eventually did a complete survey of the patient’s gut, where in stool samples they identified ”rare budding yeast” and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, another yeast species. Once it was confirmed this yeast and ingested carbohydrates were fermenting into alcohol, the man received an anti-fungal treatment and was put on a no-carbohydrate diet for six weeks. This cured him.”

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/09 ... f-alcohol/

Salute