Bees

While the sting can also penetrate the flexible exoskeletal joints in appendages of other insects (and is used in fights between queens), defense against other insects such as predatory wasps is usually performed by surrounding the intruder with a mass of defending workers, who vibrate their muscles so vigorously that it raises the temperature of the intruder to a lethal level. This is also used to kill a queen perceived as intruding or defective, an action known to beekeepers as balling the queen, named for the ball of bees formed.

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This is a blog post on hodgers.com, written by Tom Hodgkinson on January 8, 2007. Share