Honeybee secretion may find use as local anesthetic
(Phys.org)—Bees can bite. Biologists from universities in Greece and France have discovered that, besides a tail sting, the honeybee is capable of packing a paralyzing bite. The bee uses its bite weapon on targets too small to be stung. such as wax moth larva and varroa mites. The intruders can infiltrate beehives and eat wax and pollen. The bee delivers a bite that can paralyze them for up to nine minutes, enough time for them to be ejected from the hive. The honeybee uses its mandibles to bite its enemy and then secretes 2-heptanone into the wound. In their paper, the authors explain that this defense weapon is produced in the mandibular glands, released by the mandible pore of a reservoir and through the groove flows at the sharp edge of mandibles.