Giant hornets attack a hive that is unprotected from dung.
Heather Matilla
U.S. In, We’ve been so free about murder hornets, But even those aggressive giant Asian hornets are dangerous to bees. In Vietnam, some honeybees find powerful defenses against dangerous predators: animal feces.
A study conducted in Vietnam by researchers at the University of Guelph in Canada has documented the use of equipment by bees for the first time. The tool just happens to be a pup with a purpose. It turns out that dung prevents large hornets from invading bee hives.
The team published its findings in the journal PLoS One on Wednesday. “Our study describes a significant weapon in an already cultured portfolio of conservation that has developed beekeepers in response to predatory threats.”
Murder Hornets are known for marshalling integrated attacks on bee hives where they kill adult inhabitants and take the bee babies for food.
A beehive in Vietnam has a piece of dung with parts of its mouth.
Heather Matilla
Researchers documented how Vietnamese bees collected feces and placed dots around the entrance to their hive. In one experiment, researchers found that bees prefer to collect more fragrant dung from pigs and chickens when given the opportunity.
“Hornets spent less than half of the medium-heavy buttermilk from the hive entrance as if they were in a few places in the hive, and they spent only one-tenth of the bee’s hive chewing at the hive entrance to get to the hive,” the university said in a statement Wednesday.
The team considers this behavior to be a tool use because it is used for a purpose from the environment, and the bee shapes the dung from its mouth. Why dung works to control hornets is still an open question. The smell can act as a repellent, or it can hide the bee odor that attracts hornets.
Murder hornets have been a particular concern due to the threat to the bee population in North America. Canada and the U.S. Honeybees in Vietnam do not have the same tool-ability to use on their cousins. “They haven’t had a chance to develop a defense. It’s like going into the cold of war,” said lead author Heather Matilla.
Washington officials in Washington state Destroyed a murder horn garland In October, but there may be more. Hornets are an obvious threat to bees, Also concern for humans. “I do one stung after another and it was the most terrible bite of my life,” said Gard Otis, co-author of the study.
