Stingless Bees Guard Tasty Honey With Barricades, Bouncers and Bites | Deep Look

The honeybee that sweetens your tea isn’t the only kind of bee that makes honey. More than 600 bee species across Mexico, Central and South America, and other tropical regions worldwide, also make the sweet stuff. But they don’t have stingers to defend their precious product. So, how do they keep thieves away? And what does their honey taste like? WATCH: Meet the Bug You Didn’t Know You Were Eating: JOIN our community on Patreon! DEEP LOOK is an ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED in San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. See the unseen at the very edge of our visible world. Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small. --- Stingless bees build their nests mainly in the hollows of living trees, anywhere from rainforests to cities. Deep Look filmed four species kept by stingless beekeeper Emilio Pérez in the state of Oaxaca, in southwestern Mexico. He keeps Melipona beecheii, Scaptotrigona pectoralis, Scaptotrigona mexicana and Nannotrigona perilampoides to sell their honey. Stingless bees have evolved different ways to protect their honey and larvae from mammals and insects that want to eat them. Every night, tiny black bees with green eyes called Nannotrigona perilampoides cover the entrance to their nest with a barrier built out of cerumen, a material that stingless bees make by mixing wax with resins they collect from trees and other plants. The smell and stickiness of the resins keep ants away. Stingless bees also post guard bees at their nest entrance. And when defensive strategies don’t work, they tangle in their enemies’ hair, bite them with their mandibles and sometimes even coat them with resin. --- What is the difference between a honeybee and a stingless bee? Honeybee is the common name for a dozen or so species in the genus Apis. Apis mellifera, the Western or European honeybee, and Apis cerana, the Eastern or Asian honeybee, are kept worldwide because they’re very productive. Their workers, all female, use stingers to protect their hives. Stingless bees, also known as meliponines, produce smaller amounts of honey than honeybees, though some species are very productive. Both honeybees and stingless bees live in colonies with worker bees and queens. --- Does the honey of stingless bees have beneficial health properties? In Latin America and Asia, stingless bee honey is sold as a health product to treat ailments like sore throats. Honeys from both stingless bees and honeybees have hydrogen peroxide, which is antimicrobial. Since stingless bees collect resins, pollen and nectar from a host of plants – many in the rainforest – scientists are studying their honey for chemicals that might have medicinal properties. “There are really interesting chemicals in there. Some of them have known properties and it’s usually antifungal, antibacterial, even antiviral and anti-inflammatory, said entomologist David Roubik, who studied these bees at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. “If all those things apply to every kind of stingless bee, I seriously doubt it. It does depend on what kind of flowers they’ve been visiting and what kind of resin they collect.” --- More great Deep Look episodes: Varroa Mites Are a Honeybee’s 8-Legged Nightmare Honeybees Make Honey ... and Bread? --- Shoutout! 🏆Congratulations🏆 to the following fans on our Deep Look Community Tab for correctly answering our GIF challenge! @MissGenesisSaga @murc.q @Stardrop-luck @TheBestInsects @othnielheristiyono3505 --- Thank you to our top Patreon supporters ($10 per month)! Kevin Sholar Burt Humburg Max Paladino Daisuke Goto Karen Reynolds Chris B Emrick Companion Cube David Deshpande Wade Tregaskis Laurel Przybylski Cristen Rasmussen Adam Cleaver Kevin William Walker hoxtom Mark Jobes Carrie Mukaida El Samuels Walter Tschinkel Dot Joan Klivans Cho Minsung Jessica Hiraoka Bethany Noreen Herrington Louis O’Neill Elizabeth Ann Ditz HMA Levi Cai J Schumacher Drspaceman0 R B Roberta K Wright BulletproofFrog Titania Juang Jennifer Altschuler Jellyman Mehdi SueEllen McCann KW STEPHANIE DOLE MrBeeMovie xkyoirre Smoulder the Dragon Jeremiah Sullivan The Mighty X wormy boi Marco Narajos --- Follow Deep Look and KQED Science on social: @deeplookofficial Instagram: Twitter: --- About KQED KQED, an NPR and PBS member station in San Francisco, serves Northern California and beyond with a public-supported alternative to commercial TV, radio and web media. Funding for Deep Look is provided in part by PBS Digital Studios and the members of KQED.