CATDOLL : CATDOLL:Do bumblebees eat honey bees?

1. Do bumblebees eat honey bees?

Big wasps will prey on bees, but generally speaking, they will not prey on bees, especially in spring, when the swarm of big wasps is relatively small and they will not bother to prey on bees. In summer, because the food sources of big wasps are abundant, they will not prey on small bees. In autumn, it is different. Because the food sources of big wasps are reduced, bees become the prey targets of big wasps, especially they will guard the beehives and prey on small bees, which is a headache for beekeepers! !

Yes, wasps are the natural enemies of honey bees and are very dangerous to them. Once a wasp discovers a bee, it will immediately call in a swarm of wasps that are determined to completely occupy the beehive and eat all the bees.

2. The United States has seen another invasion of killer hornets. How will the United States deploy precautions?

I believe everyone is familiar with the species of bumblebees. Many people still think that it can cause harm to people. However, as a pest, bumblebees not only threaten human life and safety, but also attack bees, causing a sharp drop in honey production. Recently, there has been another invasion of killer bumblebees in the United States, which has caused many injuries. Many people are curious about what kind of deployment the United States will take. In fact, this is not much different from the preventive measures taken in previous invasions. It can be roughly divided into two aspects. The first is to protect people and the honey industry, and the second is to destroy the bumblebee's nest to fundamentally cut off its reproduction and invasion.

When a dangerous species invades, the first reaction is that local residents should take precautions, and the United States is no exception. After discovering the murder hornet wounding incident, the relevant departments in the United States immediately began an investigation and notified local residents to take precautions to avoid hornet stings. It is well known that although bees and hornets are the same species, they are still preyed upon by hornets. Therefore, in addition to human protection measures, the honey industry also needs to be closely protected, otherwise it is likely to cause local economic losses.

After notifying people and deploying protective measures, the United States will also take extermination measures against killer hornets. Species invasion is far from as simple as we ordinary people imagine. If their nests are not eliminated, it is easy to cause secondary invasions, and hornets are no exception. The nest elimination measure that can be taken at present is to stick positioning measures on the hornets. Once the hornets return to the nest, they will be accurately located, and the relevant departments will go to burn the nest holes to fundamentally eliminate the hornets.

As a dangerous species, the consequences of a successful invasion by hornets would be disastrous and they are likely to endanger the local ecological chain. Fortunately, a series of measures have been launched in the United States and it is believed that the killer hornets can be completely eradicated in a short period of time.

Find the bee nest and disinfect it. Spray the area where the bees are active. The relevant departments will make plans in time to protect the lives and safety of the people.

Strengthen personal protection for the public and industrial protection for the beekeeping industry. Urge local residents to report any traces of Asian giant hornets immediately. Find and destroy their nests to cut off their reproduction and invasion at the source.

Washington state agricultural officials said they are trying to find and destroy a nest of Asian giant hornets, also known as "murder hornets," because of concerns that they could kill honey bees that are vital to pollination. The Washington state Department of Agriculture said it found six Asian giant hornets near the town of Blaine in Whatcom County last week.

The first is to find their nests as soon as possible and destroy them to prevent the spread of the hornets; the second is to publish some self-protection measures when encountering hornets to prevent them from harming people.

How do bees make sounds?

Bees do not have organs of pronunciation, but when they fly they flap their wings at high speed constantly, causing the air to vibrate and produce a buzzing sound.

For example: the flight of worker bees is produced by the rapid vibration of the mesothoracic longitudinal muscles and mesothoracic vertical muscles in the thoracic cavity and their attachments to the mesothoracic dorsal plate, mesothoracic abdominal plate, and second suspensory bone. The vocalization of worker bees is the result of their joint vibration.

The bigger the bee, the slower it beats its wings, and the deeper the buzzing sound it makes. This phenomenon of wingbeating is not exclusive to bees; some flies, beetles and wasps can also make buzzing sounds by beating their wings while flying.

Additional information:

In addition, some bees, such as bumblebees, often vibrate their wing muscles and thorax (the middle part of their body) when collecting nectar. This vibration can cause pollen in the anthers to fall onto their bodies. When the bumblebee goes to pick a flower, some of the pollen on its body will fall onto the flower, thus completing the pollination.

Bumblebees also clean the remaining pollen into special structures on their hind legs that carry it back to the hive to feed their larvae. When bumblebees shake the flowers to release the pollen, the "buzzing" sound is quite loud.

Bees do not have this "buzzing pollination" ability, and they usually collect nectar quietly. In addition, the flowers of some plants are suitable for "buzzing pollination", such as tomatoes, green peppers and blueberries.

These plants store pollen in tubes called anthers. When bumblebees shake the flowers, pollen falls from the anthers onto the bees. Therefore, bumblebees are much more efficient at pollinating these crops than honeybees.

Reference source: Baidu Encyclopedia - Bee (Insects)

Of course, the wings also make sounds when they vibrate.

Primary school student Nie Li discovered that bees do not make sounds by vibrating their wings

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People's Daily Online, Wuhan, November 18, 2003. Recently, the deputy county chief of science and technology of Jianli County, Hubei Province, came to the Huangxiekou Town Central Primary School to visit a sixth-grade student named Nie Li and asked her a question: How do bees make a buzzing sound?

"Bees have their own vocal organs. They don't make sounds by vibrating their wings," said Nie Li.

In mid-August, at the 18th National Youth Science and Technology Innovation Competition held in Lanzhou, the scientific paper "Bees Do Not Make Sounds by Vibrating Their Wings" written by 12-year-old Nie Li won the silver medal for the competition's outstanding science and technology project and the Gao Shiqi Science Popularization Award.

Nie Li came to this conclusion after more than a year of observation and experimentation on bees.

In the fall of 2001, Nie Li learned from the book "Tutorial on Primary School Natural Studies" that insects such as bees, flies, and mosquitoes are dumb. They have no vocal organs, but they have wings that can make sounds. These insects flap their wings at high speed while flying, causing the air to vibrate, thus producing a buzzing sound. Later, Nie Li also saw in "One Hundred Thousand Whys" that the buzzing sound of bees comes from the vibration of their wings, up to 200 times per second. If the wings stop vibrating, the sound will stop. She asked her teacher for confirmation, and the teacher's view was the same as in the book.

Last spring, Nie Li went to a bee farm and found that many bees gathered on the beehive. They did not flap their wings, but they still buzzed non-stop. So she questioned the textbooks, popular science books and the teacher's explanations, and began to experiment and study bees. She first glued the bee's wings to the board with glue, and the bees still made sounds. She cut off the bee's wings and could also hear the bees' calls. The two methods were used alternately 42 times, using 48 bees each time. The experimental results showed that bees can make sounds without vibrating their wings. In order to explore the bee's vocal organs, she glued the bees to the board and carefully searched with a magnifying glass. After observing for more than a month, she finally found two black spots smaller than rapeseed at the base of the bee's wings. When the bee called, the black spots moved up and down. She poked the small black spots with a pin, and the bees stopped making sounds. She found some more bees, did not damage the wings, only pierced the small black spots, and put them in the mosquito net. The bees flew around and there was no sound. She repeated this experiment 10 times, and the results were the same. She wrote a paper about her discovery, concluding that the bees' vocal organs are these two small black dots.

It is reported that Nie Li's paper has been included in the collection of award-winning works by the competition organizing committee, and the journal of the Chinese Education Association and the Primary School Natural Science Teaching Professional Committee has also published the full text of Nie Li's paper.

The sound of bees is not due to the vibration of their wings. There are two black spots at the base of the bees' wings, which are smaller than rapeseed seeds. When bees buzz, the small black spots move up and down. This is the reason for the sound of bees. If you poke the small black spots with a pin, the bees will not make any sound.

During this year's Science and Technology Month, we borrowed a set of popular science books called "100,000 Whys" from the library. One article said that the buzzing sound of bees comes from the vibration of their wings. If the wings stop vibrating, the sound will stop immediately. But one day, I went to a beekeeping site and found that many bees gathered together. Their wings did not vibrate, but they still buzzed non-stop. So I began to doubt the statement in "100,000 Whys".

Did I observe it wrong? I looked at several places repeatedly, and it was still so slow. I saw bees perched on plants and picking flowers, and it was the same. How do bees make sounds? I want to observe and study the parts of bees that make sounds. With the help of beekeeper Uncle Du, I used the adult bees produced this year to conduct experimental research.

I first glued a bee's wings to a wooden board with 502 super glue. At this time, the bee could not vibrate its wings and there was no sound at first. After a while, it slowly made a buzzing sound. (See Table 1)

Table 1: Statistics of the wings sticking experiment

Experimental conditions

Total number of experiments

The number of deaths

Number of sounds

Sound level

Stick the left wing

8

1

7

No change

Stick to the right wing

8

1

7

No change

Stick to the wings

8

2

6

No change

Then, I cut off all the wings of another bee. When I picked up the bee without wings, I heard the buzzing sound again, but it was a little lower than the original sound. I put it in a glass bottle and could still hear its buzzing sound. (See Table 2)

Table 2: Statistics of the wing clipping experiment

Experimental conditions

Total number of experiments

The number of deaths

Number of sounds

Sound level

Cut off the left wing

8

2

6

No change

Cut off the right wing

8

3

5

No change

Clip the wings

8

2

6

No change

I used these two methods alternately for 42 experiments, using 48 bees each time, and the results all proved that bees can make sounds without vibrating their wings. Obviously, what the book said was not correct.

So, how do bees make sounds?

In order to find out where the bee's vocalization part is, I stuck the bee on a wooden board and gently touched various parts of the bee's body with my fingers. I found that the bee's chest vibrated violently. Is this the place where the bee makes a sound? I found a magnifying glass and found a small black dot next to the root of its wings. The small black dot is smaller than rapeseed. Are these two small black dots making sounds? I gently pierced the two small black dots with a pin, and the bee really stopped making sounds. After a while, it still stopped making sounds.

I found some bees to do experiments. I used a needle to prick two small black spots near the base of the bees' wings without damaging them. I put them in a mosquito net and let them fly around freely. If, the bees could no longer make any sound, (see Table 3)

Table 3: Statistics of the black spot puncture experiment

Experimental conditions

Total number of experiments

The number of deaths

Number of sounds

Sound level

Pierce the black spot on the left

8

2

6

Smaller

Puncture the black spot on the right

8

3

5

Smaller

Pierce the black spots on both sides

8

2

0

No sound

I repeated this experiment 10 times, and the results were the same: the bee's sound was not made by the vibration of its wings, but by these two small black dots.

I told the teacher the results and process of the experiment, and the teacher affirmed my spirit of inquiry and scientific attitude. He also told me that the two small black spots under the base of the bee's wings are called shoulder pieces.

What kind of bee is "100,000 Whys" talking about? I need to do further research to see if the bee species I studied is the same as the one in the book.

Huangxiekou Town Central Primary School, Jianli County, Hubei Province (433300)

Tutor

Deng Congxin

Note: This short paper won the Silver Award of the 18th National Youth Science and Technology Innovation Competition and the Gao Shiqi Science Popularization Award

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