Skip to main content
Back to Show
Deep Look

Stingless Bees Guard Tasty Honey With Barricades, Bouncers and Bites

Season 11 Episode 7

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?

Support Provided By
Season
Springtails Do Their Own Stunts
4:04
Step right up to see tiny springtails spin through the air with the greatest of ease!
Gecko Grip: It’s Atomic (Really)
3:44
Geckos navigate nearly any surface with an electron dance at the atomic scale.
The Twisted Truth About Snake Tongues
4:31
The snake's forked tongue helps it smell in stereo.
This Mushroom Can Fly
3:22
Bird’s nest fungi look just like a tiny bird's nest. But those little eggs have no yolks.
Toad Tongues Slay With Seriously Sticky Spit
3:36
How are frogs so amazing at catching bugs? It’s their supersoft tongue and special spit.
How Does the Mussel Grow its Beard?
4:00
Mussels create byssal threads to attach themselves to rocks and each other.
Earthworm Love is Cuddly ... and Complicate
4:10
Earthworms cozy up with a mate inside tubes of slime to make cocoons full of baby worms.
Have You Met a Hagfish? It’s About Slime.
3:52
What keeps the boneless, jawless hagfish thriving after more than 300 million years? SLIME
Season 9
5:04
Researchers use invisible lasers, ghastly wasps and more trickery to protect orange groves
How Hoverflies Spawn Maggots that Sweeten Your Oranges
4:20
As they gorge, oblique streaktail hoverflies help keep orange trees safe from disease.
Meet the Meat Bee... the Western Yellowjacket!
3:37
Why is that yellowjacket crashing your BBQ? She’s gathering food for the nest’s larvae.
This Parasite is Cramping The Monarch Butterfly’s Style
5:04
Explore the parasite Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) and ways to help monarch butterflies.
Active loading indicator