Newly discovered strategy in Asian bees repels killer hornets that can massacre whole hives
Asian honey bees paste pellets of animal poo on to their nests to repel attacks by giant killer hornets, scientists have revealed.
The attacks can involve dozens of the heavily armoured hornets and lead to the “mass slaughter” of thousands of bees, the researchers said, after which the hornets carry off the bee larvae to feed their own offspring. But in a continuing evolutionary arms race, the bees have developed defence mechanisms such as hissing at them or mobbing the hornets to suffocate them.
