Life and death

T

treoleileagh

Full member
Location
Australia
I know something today I didn't know yesterday.
Bees are immortal!

Yesterday, I worked on my old car that had been in sealed storage for most of the past 41 years. I last drove it in summer 1981, a fast trip from Paris to the south of France. Twenty years ago I started a slow restoration. Fifteen years ago I removed the headlight assemblies (buckets, adjuster ring. reflector, glass, dress rim) and put them (still assembled) in a locked steel box.

Yesterday, I took them out of the box and pulled them apart. Lots of struggle, dirt and rust. As the bucket came away from its adjuster ring on the first headlight, the carcass of a bee came away from where it was wedged between the two parts.

Being surgically clean in my work, I dropped the carcass into the bucket and went about struggling with the second headlight. Ten minutes later, a movement in my peripheral vision drew me back to the carcass. It spasmed again. I went to the house to get my camera.

Back at the work bench, the bee was now standing up and cleaning its legs. Then it flew off to work.

See! Never give up!
 

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I wish you would have killed it. I am severely allergic to bee stings. I hope you didn't send it to Canada. Here they survive -40c in the winter.
 
treoleileagh said:
I know something today I didn't know yesterday.
Bees are immortal!

Yesterday, I worked on my old car that had been in sealed storage for most of the past 41 years. I last drove it in summer 1981, a fast trip from Paris to the south of France. Twenty years ago I started a slow restoration. Fifteen years ago I removed the headlight assemblies (buckets, adjuster ring. reflector, glass, dress rim) and put them (still assembled) in a locked steel box.

Yesterday, I took them out of the box and pulled them apart. Lots of struggle, dirt and rust. As the bucket came away from its adjuster ring on the first headlight, the carcass of a bee came away from where it was wedged between the two parts.

Being surgically clean in my work, I dropped the carcass into the bucket and went about struggling with the second headlight. Ten minutes later, a movement in my peripheral vision drew me back to the carcass. It spasmed again. I went to the house to get my camera.

Back at the work bench, the bee was now standing up and cleaning its legs. Then it flew off to work.

See! Never give up!
Click to expand...
It's not a bee, it's a wasp.

Paul
 
Paul Marx said:
It's not a bee, it's a wasp.

Paul
Click to expand...
A European wasp - a bloody feral creature in Australia. You should have stomped on it.

Quote from the Department of Primary Industries NSW:
"The economic impact from these wasps on primary industries within beekeeping, forestry and horticulture is significant. They have the potential to disrupt native ecosystems by taking food sources away from native species and disturbing the natural food chain. European wasps are known to be territorial therefore place a negative impact on human health."
 
My first big multi-day ride was in 40c weather and I had my jacket open to cool off when something bit me, I was thinking ouch but it's probably a Bee and they die after one sting. And then it happened again and again so as I slowed I was wacked at my torso trying to kill whatever it was. Never found it but hell it hurt. Must have been a Wasp. I learned a lot on that ride.
 
I am highly allergic to insect stings. The second time I had ever been stung I was riding along and whatever it was, probably a bee, hit me just at my helmet strap at my neck. I almost past out from that sting. Had to stop riding and I was all wobbly and groggy.
 
I'm not allergic to stings, but when I was a young bloke, I was riding along the road on a warm summer day wearing just a t-shirt. Oops, I just realised that could be misinterpreted. I assure you I was also wearing pants. Apologies for any unsavoury mental images created there ... Anyway, I apparently ran up the arse of a bee travelling in the same direction and her stinger got me right in the antecubital fossa. For those not familiar with phlebotomy, that's inner elbow area where blood is usually drawn from vein when a sample needs to be taken.

The stinger went straight into a vein. I suppose the speed of impact of arm and bee's arse may also have forced extra venom into the vein, but for a few seconds it felt like a lightning bolt had gone up my right arm. Then my whole arm went semi-numb for about 5 minutes. I had difficulty controlling the throttle and brake, and had to pull over at the first opportunity. I removed the little venom sac and stinger while waiting for normal arm function to be resumed. Oddly enough there was no pain, swelling or itchy lump afterwards. I guess all the venom went straight into the blood and my kidneys were filtering it out within minutes, rather than it being concentrated in a small subcutaneous area that you'd normally get with a bee sting.
 
Once, while riding T-shirt clad, I suddenly felt a burning sensation on the left of my abdomen.
I thought it might be a cigarette end, tossed from a car window, have had that happen a couple of times before.
As I fumbled to find it, with my left hand, Bang!, another hit, then another and again.
Finally, my fingers contacted what I realised, now, was a wasp. Soon to be a crushed wasp.
I pulled to the side of the road, emptied the corpse out of my shirt and carried on, itching a bit, but not too bad.
 
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