Initiative#40: Bees..

Dislike. Major dislike.

Bees are a common fear, yours truly developed it when she got stung by one years ago. Instinctively we sense danger when we hear their buzzing, even elephants are afraid of them.

Does the fact that size doesn’t matter when it comes to the fear of bees make me feel better?

No…bees are actually far more harmless than wasps.  Bees are just attracted to natural sugar unlike wasps which are actually used for pest control as they’re predators of other insects.

Photo by Stewart

I really should feel sorry for bees because so many animals are out to ‘get’ them – bee eater birds, dragonflies, assassin bugs ( no I’m actually not making this up ), and of course , us, the big bullies of the animal kingdom.

So today, I decided to sit still next to a flower bush where an army of bees resided. I watched them buzz from flower to flower; the noises they made became rather therapeutic after a while.  I didn’t sit very near for the fear of being stung but I was close enough to be able to watch them flit from flower to flower, fly off, circle around, and come back to settle on another beauty.

Photo by Emrank

Honestly, all the facts, all the money, and all the compassion in the world could not have alleviated my fear when a bee chose to sit on my elbow for a while.

I had taken the necessary precautions; I wasn’t wearing any perfume nor had I eaten anything sweet prior to this task.  I also sat very very still and tried myself not to move; when bees sense quick movement such as flinging of the arms, swatting, they interpret that as aggressive behavior and THEN is when they sting.

“What the..Get off me please…”

Looking back, I would have emerged the victor even if the bee had stung me. Because bees DIE after they sting you, did you know that? And all I had to do was to remove the stinger asap and I would have been fine.

Somehow I had the guts (or the nerves) to just let it feel its’ feelers around my scabby, wrinkly elbow. The bee actually started to look rather friendly. If I had not been terrified that it’d sting me any minute, I might have even played around with him/her and we could have both gotten along quite fine.

Photo by AussieGall

** This is coming from the girl who begged her best friend to save her from a bee earlier that afternoon. And the said best friend trapped the bee in MY coffee and let it drown. Say a prayer won’t you? ***

Mercifully ( or not..) it flew away after a while and reported back to the rest of the bees that I’m no good for pollination.

Should I or should I not visit a bee farm? That might be kind of cool to try out..

Do any of you have a fear of bees? What do you do about it?