system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do wasps seem to be more aggressive in the fall?

Growing up I had pear trees, wasps LOVE rotting pears. During the fall, when there was hundreds of pears on the ground you’d think they’d be less aggressive because of the abundance of food, Compared to the only 20-30 ish pears on the ground during the summer. The wasps seemed angry in the fall, does anyone know why?
gpt
#They are drunk on pear wine.


Wasps undergo a four-stage life cycle that starts with eggs and ends with adulthood. An adult wasp isn't likely to live longer than a few weeks, though it is possible for some workers and drones in the colony to survive for several months. The exception here is the queen. The average queen lives for about a year (queens have been kept alive in lab settings for several years though).

Having said all that, the average queen has stopped laying eggs by mid-summer. By the end of summer, a nest typically goes dormant. That leaves surviving workers with nothing to do and, more importantly, no food.

Older wasps are no longer capable of eating other insects, like flies, due to a restrictive band around their abdomens. The insects they do capture are chewed up and fed to larvae in the nest. In turn, the larvae secrete a sugary substance that acts as a food source for the adults.

A dormant nest is no longer producing food for older adults because there are no more larvae making it. Those adult wasps are forced to find food elsewhere. One source is rotting fruit found out and about. It is this rotting fruit that makes wasps more aggressive.

Rotting fruit ferments as it rots, so although no big deal for us, it's not good for wasps. They essentially get drunk just by feeding, which makes them more aggressive. It turns out that wasps are not happy drunks; they are more prone to taking a defensive position even when not provoked. They are also more prone to attacking.