If the heatwave wasn’t already doing our heads in enough at this point, then it’s going to have even more far reaching consequences than we expected as it turns out that male bees are ejaculating themselves to death because of it – which could have a serious effect on future grain production all over Europe.
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Firstly, you’re probably wondering why male bees – also known as drones – feel the need to ejaculate themselves to death when there’s a heatwave. Well, thanks to Dr. Alison McAfee at the University of British Columbia’s Michael Smith Laboratories and her research, here’s the lowdown:
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When drones die from shock, they spontaneously ejaculate. They have this elaborate endophallus that comes out and is about the size of their own abdomen. It’s pretty extreme.
We know that after six hours at 107 F degrees, half of drones will die of heat stress. The more sensitive ones start to perish at two, or three hours. That’s a temperature they shouldn’t normally experience, but we were seeing drones getting stressed to the point of death.
OK that doesn’t really explain why it happens, just that it does. I guess it’s always good to have a scientific explanation though isn’t it?
Anyway, 107 Fahrenheit is roughly 41 degrees Celsius and if you’ve been paying attention this week then you’ll know that a bunch of places in this country reached that temperature. I imagine it’s even worse on the continent where the heatwave is also prevalent. Some experts are estimating that half of the drone population could be wiped out because of the situation.
That’s really not good as it means that a whole bunch of crops won’t be pollinated which is only going to drive up the price of pretty much everything that we buy off farmers, especially because there’s already a grain shortage due to the Russian war with Ukraine. Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse.
For more of the same, check out these two bees going at it doggy style on a roof. Happier time.
