I stepped on a bee today...OUCH!

[tikiyaki]

Yea, it's true. About 6 months ago my fiancee did the same thing. Seems the bees around my house are half dead and hang around on the ground.
Friggin hurt like a beotch....right in the toe next to my pinky toe.
I pulled the stinger out and my toe felt it got novacaine ini t and turned all red.

I hate bees ! At least he's dead now (he was a yellowjack)

Anyone ever do this ?

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: I stepped on a bee today...OUCH!

Ow! Those are sore. But, errr. Was it a bee... or was it a yellowjacket? They're not the same you know.

[WindwardOahuRN]

Re: I stepped on a bee today...OUCH!

Yea, it's true. About 6 months ago my fiancee did the same thing. Seems the bees around my house are half dead and hang around on the ground.
Friggin hurt like a beotch....right in the toe next to my pinky toe.
I pulled the stinger out and my toe felt it got novacaine ini t and turned all red.

I hate bees ! At least he's dead now (he was a yellowjack)

Anyone ever do this ?

My most memorable insect sting happened when I was about four years old.

My cute little panties had been hung out on the line to dry on laundry day.

A wasp had decided to investigate my panties. My mother took the wash down from the line and brought the basket of laundry inside.

I took the freshly laundered panties, complete with wasp, and put them on.

The rest is history.

[MadAzza]

Re: I stepped on a bee today...OUCH!

I took the freshly laundered panties, complete with wasp, and put them on.

Aaaaah!

I swear to God, I felt that!

[pzarquon]

Re: I stepped on a bee today...OUCH!

Ai!

Well, I now have a deep-seated fear of bees, and it stems from an incident when I was 13 or so.

I was mountain biking with a friend in Manoa, and we somehow (not surprisingly for us) ended up off trail and basically lost on Wa'ahila Ridge. Instead of turning back, we stubbornly soldiered on, until basically we were shoving our bikes through thick brush.

And then I stepped in a bee hive.

You know in cartoons, when bees suddenly form this giant cloud and chase hapless victims around? They really do that! I ditched the bike and ran blindly in a random direction, being chased quite aggressively by, oh, a billion bees. Of course, scampering along a mountainside, screaming, with your eyes closed generally doesn't end well, and this adventure didn't. Basically I stepped straight off a ledge and fell about ten feet into (fortunately) thick underbrush.

Of course, the bees took no pity, came down to where I lay, and stung the crap out of me.

When my friend caught up with me, I was basically delirious, in part from dehydration (water? who brings water on a bike ride?), and in part from having all those bee stings in my skin. He basically left me there to whimper and pick out stings while he tried to figure out where we were.

Just before sundown we staggered out behind UH faculty housing. I was finding dead bees in my clothes and bike gear for days. And now I cower like a schoolgirl the moment I spot one.

[mel]

Re: I stepped on a bee today...OUCH!

In most cases the bee that stings you are female worker bees. There aren't too many male bees around.

[Surfingfarmboy]

Re: I stepped on a bee today...OUCH!

Inasmuch as many dislike or hate bees...pzarquon's incident with the swarm of bees must have been harrowing..and the fact that so many people are allergic to bee stings (some people are so sensitive to bees in general they even have to avoid vitamin supplements with bee pollen in them), we do have to have them around for the propagation of most of our plant life and farmed crops in general, self-pollinating plants not withstanding.

There's a good chance that a given honey bee you might see actually "belongs" to someone, either through someone who raises honey in conjunction with local farmers, (common in Hawaii; Hawaii produces some excellent honey) or as in the case in many parts of the mainland, they are part of a troupe of bees who are moved from state to state, by tractor-trailer, to wherever crops are in need of pollination. It's common for bees to be transported en masse to pollinate fruit orchards in New York, later moved to Cape Cod for cranberry pollination, and later head south to pollinate the citrus crop in Florida. Bees are transported to where they are needed, and in mass quantities. The fact is there aren't nearly enough bees in the wild to satisfy our agricultural pollination needs, and these travelling "bee squads" fill in where Mother Nature can't.

[tikiyaki]

Re: I stepped on a bee today...OUCH!

PZ....Your bee story is friggin horriffic....I've always been bee phobic, but THAT is friggin horrible. Yikes! The panty story is no picnic either.
As far as bees being necessary, maybe so, but if they all disappeared tomorrow, I'l be fine with no honey or fruit., but I'm sure nature would readjust and make things work.

Anyway, my throbbing toe doesn't seem so bad now. Thanx PZ

[Bard]

Re: I stepped on a bee today...OUCH!

We had a rental house here that had a small yellow jacket hive in the ground in part of the yard, in a planter. We told the owners about it but they said it was too much trouble to deal with unless it was bothering someone...

Well, I went to go mow the yard right before we were going to move out. I had one of those powerless push mowers so I figured that mowing next to the yellow jacket nest wouldn't cause any problems. I was wrong. I heard some buzzing near my ears, and before I knew it they had done that exact swarming thing, stung me in about 4 places at once. I didn't realize at the time that running just eggs them on, so I ran... out of the yard, around the block, stopped for a few times to try to bat them away. I bet I looked funny to anyone watching. Ran back to my house and into the bathroom, slammed the door, and threw all my clothes on the ground (they had gotten inside them). The wasps were trapped by my clothes so they started buzzing and coming at me one at a time and I was able to whap 'em with a sandal. Before I was all done I counted 13 dead just in the bathroom

Not so fond of the things anymore.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: I stepped on a bee today...OUCH!

I took the freshly laundered panties, complete with wasp, and put them on.
The rest is history.

Aaaaah!
I swear to God, I felt that!

Hell - so did I !!!! I'm squirming as I type this...

The worst sting I had doesn't even compare to these stories; I simply put my hand down on top of one that I didn't know was there - but the bee let me know. I was probably 7 or 8. I'm not fond of them, per se, but I respect 'em for what they do so I try to leave them to it.

[Surfingfarmboy]

Re: I stepped on a bee today...OUCH!

As far as bees being necessary, maybe so, but if they all disappeared tomorrow, I'l be fine with no honey or fruit., but I'm sure nature would readjust and make things work.

You may as well throw many vegetables in the list of ag crops we'd be missing as well. I can't think of anyway Mother Nature would be able to re-adjust to pollinate the billions and billions of blossoms that ultimately bear fruit, vegetables, or other ag products, as well as bees can. It just wouldn't happen. More than likely, without bees, we'd have to genetically modify our crops to the point where they self-pollinated, and you know the controversy gentically modifiied crops are..I'm not even going to touch that subject!

If you want to see what potential havoc a crop not being pollinated on time, check out California during almond blossom season...if the weather is cool and rainy, the bees brought in to pollinate the crop (pollination services are huge in California almond country) are relunctant to fly...the potential for reduced crop yield is huge...if the bees ain't flying, there is a lot of worry and hand-wringing in The Valley. Mind you, almonds are just one crop, out of many, that rely entirely on blossom pollination by bees. Clearly, we need our bees!

[tikiyaki]

Re: I stepped on a bee today...OUCH!

Clearly, we need our bees!

OK, then, can't we genetically alter to NOT have stingers ?

[Leo Lakio]

Re: I stepped on a bee today...OUCH!

OK, then, can't we genetically alter to NOT have stingers ?

Originally, I read that last word without the "t", and I thought - "ooh, let's start with Celine Dion!"

[sinjin]

Re: I stepped on a bee today...OUCH!

Wait till those Africanized buggahs get to you folks.

[tikiyaki]

Re: I stepped on a bee today...OUCH!

Originally, I read that last word without the "t", and I thought - "ooh, let's start with Celine Dion!"

That's a good place to start. Can we move to Eddie Vedder next ?

Wait till those Africanized buggahs get to you folks.

Man, now THAT'S scary. Killer bees....man, that's just pure evil.