Researchers have watched Asian honey bees hunt for animal feces（粪便）, carry it home, and then apply it around the entrance to their nests. Their findings document the behavior for the first time.
"It turns out that by applying animal feces around colony entrances, Asian honey bees are able to stop giant hornets（大黄蜂）from their nest entrances. The hornets are less likely to try to break into the colonies by landing and chewing at their entrances in a multiple-hornet attack, which is the most deadly kind of hornet attack that honey bees experience," lead researcher Heather Mattila said.
Called "fecal spotting", what the bees are doing is using a tool, researchers suggest. "Tool use is a controversial topic and the criteria to identify it have been defined and redefined many times over," Mattila says. "Across the majority of definitions, we look for an animal holding something, placing it with intentionality, and using it in a way that improves the function of the thing that the tool was applied to. This behavior of honey bees meets all of these criteria. "
Mattila and her fellows have been studying Asian honey bees in Vietnam since 2013. They've done fieldwork watching colonies in wooden hives（蜂房）managed by local beekeepers. They cleaned the front of the hives and then tracked how the bees looked for animal feces to build up defenses against their hornet enemies.
They found that giant hornets were much less likely to land on hive entrances or chew their way into the hives when there were more fecal spots around the entrances.
Attacks by groups of giant hornets can sometimes wipe out entire colonies of honey bees so protective measures like these are key to survival. Interestingly, the animal feces keeps away the hornets, but the bees don't have a problem picking it up or toting it around.
"At this point, we don't know why animal feces disgusts hornets but is attractive to bees," Matilla says. "It is definitely something that needs to be studied further."
