The smell of poop is a strong repellant — even against murder hornets.

That’s according to new research from the University of Guelph, and published Wednesday in PLOS One.

The team of researchers found that honeybees in Vietnam collect animal poop and put it around the entrances of their nests in an effort to protect them from fatal murder hornet raids.

“Workers collected feces at our dung piles throughout the study; we also observed them foraging for feces in a nearby chicken coop,” researchers wrote, also noting that worker bees sometimes used soap scum and, on one occasion, human pee.

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