The tiny bees have again presented us with delicious and exotic gifts of the hive.

In the first ever issue of the International Society for Microbial Ecology Journal (ISMEJ), scientists from Bar-Ilan University have shown that honey and royal jelly (a nutritive mixture fed to larval honey bees) can be effective defenses against the anti-biotic resistant microbe P. aeruginosa.

The defensive properties of honey and royal jelly are the result of two of their ingredients: fructose and mannosylated glycoproteins. Together these molecules act as decoys of host cell-surface compounds that the microbe uses to attach itself to its victims.

Although P. aeruginosa generally only affects people with compromised immune systems, don't let that discourage you from slathering all your future open wounds with ample amounts of bee-secretions!

As an aside, a fructose is tasty and easy to draw, and a mannosylated glycoprotein is not tasty and hard to draw.