|
 |
|
|
|
These are honey bees. Would you believe that there are up to 60,000 bees in one hive? All working very hard to make the honey that they need to survive! |
|
|
|
|
|
It's very hard work. One bee would have to fly three times round the world just to produce this amount of honey! |
|
|
|
|
|
So the hive and its occupants are well worth defending. And the bee has a very good way of doing this, as you'll know if you've ever been stung by one! |
|
|
|
|
|
The bee sting is a masterpiece of design. The sting comprises three parts - a guide, and two barbs. You can see them on this studio model. |
|
|
|
|
|
If the bee decides you are a threat it will warn you off with a nasty jab. So - it releases one of the barbs into your skin... |
|
|
|
|
|
...then the next one... |
|
|
|
|
|
...and so on until it shuffles up and the sting is well and truly embedded in your skin. At the end of the sting is a reservoir full of venom, ready to pump into you... |
|
|
|
|
|
...a superbly designed poison delivery system. |
|
|
|
|
|
But there's one fatal flaw. The barbs are so well designed for embedding in skin, that once it's stung you, it can't get it out again. |
|
|
|
|
|
So when the bee flies off, it leaves behind a sting complete with a sack of poison pumping into you, leaving you in pain. But the bee starts to die. |
|
|
|
|
|
So what's the point of a defence system which kills the defender? Well, it's useful to bees in general. If the creature that gets stung doesn't know to avoid bees, it probably will now - so bees should be safer. |
|
|
|
|
|
Bees have more bad news. They can send out a message in the form of a smell like pear drops.
This acts like an alarm which tells other bees of the threat and tells them to attck. |
|
|
|
|
|
When the other bees get the message, they too produce the smell and rush to attack. |
|
|
|
|
|
So if there are other bees in the area or you're near a hive, the best thing you can do is get out of the area - because you're going to get stung by half the hive! |
|
|
|
|
|
Which can be easier said than done because a bee can fly at up to fifteen miles per hour! All in all, bees are perfectly equipped to defend their hive. Even if it means sacrificing themselves. |
|
|
|
|