Sometimes we face challenges in life that seem insurmountable. But if you think it’s tough for us take a look at what the Japanese honeybee faces. The Japanese honeybee has a fiercesome predator, the Giant Japanese Hornet. When a Giant Japanese Hornet finds a honeybee’s nest it will kill a few honeybees and take them back to its nest to feed it’s larvae. But then it returns, this time marking the honeybee hive with a scent. The scent attracts other hornets, and when two or three have arrived they begin to slaughter the honeybees en masse.
But the honeybees have developed a defence, and a defence that puzzled scientists for quite some time. You see, the honeybees can kill the hornets, but not in the way you might think – they don’t sting them to death. Instead they do the opposite of what might be expected. They begin by doing all they can to annoy the hornet trying to mark its scent on their nest. Over 100 worker honeybees gather near the entrance to the nest, and then, when the hornet comes near, they lift and shake their abdomens in a peculiar dance. And the hornet finds this really aggravating. The bees then dive into their nest, and the steamed up hornet follows, intent to do some damage!
Unbeknown to the hornet 1000 worker bees are waiting for him just inside the entrance. When he gets close enough around 500 of them jump on him, enclosing him in a ball of honeybees about the size of a clenched fist. They gather as close as they can to the hornet and start vibrating their muscles. And what happens? The vibrations cause the temperature to rise and rise and rise. In less than 5 minutes the temperature’s up to 47 degrees. And guess what temperature is too hot for a hornet to survive? 45 degrees, whereas the honeybees can function up to 49 degrees. The hornet dies and the honeybees survive.
Application: problems, difficulties. Sometimes the problems in our lives can seem so overwhelming that we can't see anyway out. The most obvious way doesn’t seem to work. The Japanese honeybees encourage us to keep looking until we find another way.
Application: community, church. Sometimes the insurmountable obstacles in our life can only be overcome when we join together with others to tackle them.
Application: sin, temptation. There’s always a way out (1 Corinthians 10.13), even when it may not seem obvious
Application: injustice, evil, justice. The hornet appears to be far more powerful than the honeybee and bent on destruction. Yet he can be overcome by the combined effort of the honeybees. In the same way the powerful forces of injustice and evil can usually be overcome only when we stand in solidarity with one another.
Source: Scott Higgins. Scientific info from Dr Karl Kruszelnicki’s New Moments in Science #1