Daily Bitachon: Shaar HaBechina (Insects) Welcome to our daily Bitachon. We continue in our Shaar HaBechina series, following the directive of the Chovot HaLevavot to look deeply into the different parts of creation. This week, we are discussing insects, and we'll start with the spider. The Master Chemist: The Spider Spiders are master chemists, producing up to seven types of silk from specialized glands. Let's talk about its strength: spider silk is thinner than a human hair but stronger than steel. It is even stronger than Kevlar , the synthetic fiber used to reinforce tires, helmets, and vests. If a spider strand were as thick as a penny, it could hold a 747 airliner . That is truly remarkable. There is also a brilliant architecture behind their webs. They are engineered to "localize" damage; if one section breaks, the rest of the structure remains intact, allowing for an easy repair rather than a total rebuild. And look at Hashem's wonders in how He allows spiders to live underwater. There is a "diving bell spider" that acts like a scuba diver. It spins a silk bell between plants and hauls air bubbles from the surface to fill it. It even possesses water-repellent body hairs that trap a thin layer of oxygen, acting as a portable scuba tank when it leaves its bubble to hunt. Some spiders build life-sized decoys of themselves using bug corpses and silk; predators like wasps attack the dummy 90% of the time! Others, like garden spiders, weave zigzag patterns of non-sticky silk that mimic the patterns of flowers. This tricks pollinators into flying directly into the web, increasing the catch rate by 50%. To finish the job, they have advanced weaponry to pierce the hard armor of other insects. Their fangs are reinforced with metal atoms—copper, magnesium, iron, and zinc—essentially making them built-in hypodermic needles. The silk itself is a liquid inside the body that instantaneously solidifies upon contact with air. A baby spider, without any instruction, can engineer a mathematically precise web in under thirty minutes. The spacing and tension follow sophisticated architectural principles to ensure the threads don't snap when a fly struggles. And that is just one little insect. The Chemical Engineer: The Bombardier Beetle Next, we have the Bombardier Beetle , a master of chemical engineering and pressure management. When threatened, it shoots a boiling spray at enemies with a literal gunshot sound. How does it work? It stores two harmless chemicals separately, mixing them only in a reinforced combustion chamber when under attack. If they weren't stored separately and the chamber wasn't protected, the beetle would kill itself. This deterrent is so hot and painful that even much larger predators retreat instantly. The beetle's abdomen is a biological lab. It has two storage tanks—one for hydroquinone and the other for hydrogen peroxide . On their own, they are inert. But when squeezed into the reaction chamber, the beetle adds specialized enzymes that act as a detonator. The reaction is so violent it reaches 100°C (212°F) instantly. The beetle doesn't just explode; it aims. Its exit valve is highly flexible, allowing it to swivel the nozzle and hit a predator precisely. The Navigator: The Honeybee Now for something more common: the Honeybee . A honeybee can fly from its hive, visit thousands of flowers, and return home with pinpoint accuracy. This is a "traveling salesman" before we ever had GPS! They utilize a sun compass and can see polarized light, allowing them to know the sun's position even on overcast days. To do this, they have complex eyes that detect the vibration of light waves. Even if the sun is hidden by clouds, they see the patterns. And like many other creatures, they communicate. One single bee can recruit hundreds of others to a specific patch of flowers miles away. That's why you know that when one bee enters your sukkah , many others are likely to follow—they share the good news! The Mathematician: The Desert Ant Finally, consider the Desert Ant . He needs to get home fast because the desert heat could kill him in minutes. How does he find his way? Scientists found that these ants have a pedometer —they count every step—and a built-in compass to track every turn. He might zigzag all over the desert looking for food, but the moment he finds it, he heads home in a perfectly straight line. He kept track of every direction and every step. Scientists proved this by putting "stilts" on an ant to lengthen its legs. When the ant tried to go home, it overshot its nest! Because its legs were longer, 100 steps took it much further than usual, but its internal computer told it that it hadn't reached home yet. Every creature, whether a bird or an ant, has a system built in by Hashem to get them home. We talk about humans having a "good" or "bad" sense of direction, but we have no sense of direction at all compared to the desert ant!
