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A bee-killing wasp lays eggs that emit toxic gas 鈥� a food hygiene technique that keeps the larvae鈥檚 dinner fresh until they hatch.

The European beewolf鈥檚 eggs spew out large amounts of nitric oxide (NO), which reacts with oxygen in the air to form nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). The gases destroy microbes such as fungi that threaten food resources for the offspring.

The beewolf paralyses its prey by stinging them with venom. It then lays eggs on the paralysed bodies of the bees, which provides a handy meal for hatched larvae. But the dank soil where egg-laying occurs is microbe-rich, so the bees can get consumed by mould in the three days before larvae emerge. The fumigation prevents the hapless bee from spoiling.

at the University of Regensburg in Germany got a whiff of the mechanism during experiments with beewolves that had laid eggs inside lab containers. A swimming pool-like aroma caused by NO₂ was noticeable when the containers were opened.

鈥淭he smell is really strong sometimes and it differs from brood cell to brood cell a bit,鈥� he says. Strohm and his colleagues confirmed the presence of nitrogen oxides with a simple reactive dye test.

鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of undeniably cool that the wasp has evolved mitigations for a pest-control strategy,鈥� says at the University of Texas at Austin.

He says he can鈥檛 think of another example of naturally occurring fumigation in the insect world. at the University of Connecticut says she is stumped too.

Strohm and his team also identified a gene in the beewolf eggs that is missing a common instruction known to limit NO production. It is possible that this is why the eggs generate so much noxious gas.

Broderick points out that the synthesis of NO at lower levels is common in many organisms. The compound is useful for development and wound-healing, for example. But it has evolved a very specific 鈥� and lethal 鈥� use in beewolf eggs.