The judo bee

After last week's post about the bees seeing off a bumblebee intruder I saw another fight, this time with a wasp.  I didn't see how it started but it was outside the hive.  I think it is more likely the wasp was chewing wood off the outside of the hive as It would be unusual to see wasp trying to get in at this time of year.   Whatever set it off, the wasp was being seriously manhandled by the bee.  It was interesting to see that the bee made no attempt to sting the wasp.

At times it was more like a judo bout, as you can see from this throw.

The bee dragged the wasp across this 2 inch (5cm) piece of wood and threw it down the other side.

Then she seemed to sense that the wasp had had enough and let it go.  The bee got her breath back and groomed everything back into place and then turned round as if to have another go.

But the wasp had already crawled away to lick its wounds.

It will know not to get too close to the bees next time.