Now we’re cooking with honey!

How does a honeybee kill an insect 20x its size?  It cooks it to death.  And not over an open fire, either.

In an article published last week on sciencenews.org, it was found that a few species of honeybees were capable of swarming an attacker (usually a wasp) and then cooking the insect to death by each bee raising its body temp to almost 45 degrees C (113 degrees F).  While the insect died, the bees can apparently sustain temps approaching 50 degrees Celsius without harm to themselves.  (As little as a half-degree over 50 C killed the bees, however.)

It was previously thought that the swarming insects were stinging the insect invaders to death.

I’m not an insect lover, but this is a pretty cool finding.  Find the full text of the article below …

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050924/fob5.asp

Definition

choke artist, noun (chôK ar-tist)

pl. choke artists

1.) Someone well-versed in the practice of choking.  2.) A person who shows promise, but is unable to deliver. 

see also: The Cleveland Indians

 

You know, the worst thing about this is that now I have to listen to Chris go on and on about whether he should pay attention to the NU football game or the White Sox baseball game.