A clump of bees is very warm, picking up a swarm is relatively low risk and the heat is definitely the first thing you notice, though done wrong it could also be the last.
It’s interssting that they turned a survival technique into killing method.
Like how warm? How hot do you imagine the hornets get
They keep their hives at about 35C, which is white noticeable when you open them up. Same goes for big clumps of bees. Angry ones balling a invader are considerably hotter it seems, and this article mentions 49C. I’ve seen other article noting that bees die at about 51, while hornets die at a fractionally lower temperature. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12649-honeybees-gang-...
Re:Backyard beekeeping in Japan
by blaser-waffle on Wednesday July 17, 2019 @08:56AM
(#20458885)
Kind of like a fever, heating your body up to fight off infections.
Or, in a chemical sense, chemo vs. cancer.
The article suggested honeybees kill them by surround them and vibrating to cause the hornets to overheat and die.
That is also fascinating. How does that ever evolve.