Community map
Where is the fig wasp in California?
Some of the best figs in the world only fruit if a wasp two millimetres long lives nearby. This map shows where people have found it.
- Sightings
- 107
- Zip codes
- 95
Why it matters
Most garden figs are common types and set fruit on their own. But Smyrna types — Calimyrna and its relatives — and the main crop of San Pedro types only ripen if the fig wasp carries pollen in from a caprifig. No wasp, no crop. If it’s in your area, a whole class of varieties opens up.
How to spot it
Blastophaga psenes is tiny, black, and lives inside caprifigs — the inedible male figs. Look for caprifig trees nearby, figs on your common varieties that are unusually seedy or split at the eye, or the wasps themselves crawling at the ostiole in early summer.
A California story
The wasp was brought to Fresno in 1899 to make the Calimyrna industry possible, and it has lived in the Central Valley ever since. Outside the valley its range is patchy and poorly recorded — which is exactly what this map is for.
Reports are placed at the centre of the zip code, never at an address. Names are shown as entered.