Bee Ball: One of the Most Awesome Defensive Moves in Nature
When an Asian giant hornet enters a beehive, cue the scary music. Asian giant hornets have thick exoskeletons that are impervious to bees’ stingers. A single hornet can kill thirty bees in one minute. Thirty hornets will destroy a hive of 30,000 bees in under four hours. It’s a massacre…unless the beehive belongs to Japanese honey bees. Then the tables are turned, thanks to the hot defensive bee ball.
Cooking Hornets in a Bee Ball
Bee balls are just the most amazingly awesome defensive action. What happens is that a cluster of perhaps five hundred bees form a ball around the attacking hornet. The bees vibrate the muscles in their wings to generate heat, directing the heat toward the center of the ball. As the bees increase the heat, they are also increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide inside the ball.
The hornet’s ability to tolerate the heat decreases as the carbon dioxide increases. Within 30-60 minutes, the hornet dies.
But that’s not even the best part. The best part of this story is that the bees vibrate their wings to get to the precise temperature of 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47 C). Just one degree higher and the bees would die as well.
Here’s a 3:42 minute National Geographic video showing the process in action. Stephen King’s got nothing on these guys!
Marker Genes Prevent Bee Suicide
Scientists have discovered that Japanese honey bees are unique in possessing a marker gene in their brains. This marker gene is not responsible for getting the bees to form the bee ball. The gene turns on a minute or two after the ball has begun to form. Scientists aren’t sure, but speculate that the marker gene may be a timer that tells the bees when to stop their bee ball attack.
Honestly, now. Is there any response to this story other than WOW? Comments, as always, are welcomed.