Ever Seen a Drunk Hornet?

By Shlomo Maital

   Ever seen a drunk hornet?

    Let me explain.

     Hornets are a species of wasp.  They often dine on over-ripe fruit with high sugar content.  The sugars in the fruit ripen and ferment, sometimes creating alcohol, as high as 80 proof (e.g., high-alcohol vodka, 40% alcohol). 

     This ought to make hornets dizzy-drunk, right?  I mean, they are relatively tiny…and consume such large amounts of alcohol into their tiny bodies.

      Not a chance.  You have never ever seen a drunk hornet. Nor will you. 

       Why?

      Because biologists have discovered that hornets have a powerful enzyme in their livers (our livers are the organs that process and metabolize alcohol) that metabolizes the alcohol fast and efficiently, before it enters the blood stream and screws up the brain.

     How come?  Over years of eating fermented alcohol-laden fruit,  millions of years, hornets have through evolution evolved to deal with it.  Hornets that didn’t, well – they died out before procreating. 

       Hornets have existed for more than 200 million years.  Humans?  Perhaps, 50,000 years.  And in recent times, humans have brought a halt to evolution, because we do not allow survival of the fittest to eliminate those who are weaker or less fit (thank goodness for that!). 

        So, no, there are no drunk hornets.  Another amazing feat of evolution.  Thanks, Charles Darwin!