The Bee's Knees.

Back when Killer Bees were more threatening to North America than terrorists or commies, Marvel comics created a character named Swarm, a composite being of hundreds of thousands of bees driven by a human intelligence!








One of the dumbest movies ever made on this same subject was Irwin Allen's "The Swarm", a honey of a flick with Katherine Ross and Michael Caine based on a book by Arthur Herzog that I remember reading in high school. (A far better movie was 1959's The Wasp Woman that you can download for yourself here!)

But now please enjoy the sweet, sweet Swarm:



Well now the Swarm has reached New Brunswick when a truckful of bees overturned spilling millions of bees into the streets!







Japan has its own nasty little killer bee, the すずめばち (suzume no bachi) known in Latin as Vespinae. These voracious beasties stroll into another bee's nest and systematically devour all its inhabitants. These much smaller bees have only countered with one possible defense. They surround the predator with hundreds of drones and whir their wings at such a high rate that the temperature rises and the visitor suffocates. Pretty ingenious!

While Alex was off on a mountain trip with his students, one of them discovered a jar of these wasps ready for human consumption. At only 5000￥, it's a bargain!