Bombardier Beetle: Boiling Chemical Defense

Jetting a 212-degree spray straight from its abdomen, the bombardier beetle releases boiling chemicals that instantly scald and ward off attackers. In the Amazon rainforest, this beetle stashes two separate reservoirs-hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide-that never mix until it’s in danger. When threatened, muscles slam open valves and the two chemicals meet in a reinforced chamber, detonating a rapid-fire chemical explosion up to 500 times per minute. The last thing a predator sees is a cloud of boiling, steaming liquid bursting from the beetle, hot enough to burn skin-because only the bombardier beetle can control a chemical reaction at the boiling point of water inside its own body.