#2 Bees

No more bees, no more pollination ... no more men!
- Einstein (putatively)

She and He
King bee? Note likely, it’s all about her. Worker bees (often sisters, all sterile) create and later kill honeybee queens. Her pheromones, the loyalty-inspiring glue that binds workers to queens, increase with copulatory success and diversity. She lives at the sufferance of workers who, like the henhouse farmer, may terminate her for lack of productivity.

Unlike most species — males compete and females simply select —workers hold the queen to a traditional male “standard.” Mate or die trying.
Young queens fly several inter-colony mating sorties, warehouse ejaculate in spermatheca, and lay eggs the rest of their two to three-year life. Egg production can reach 2000 per day plus another 1000 to 1500 to replace worker mortality, caused mostly by old age.

Males swarm in “drone comets;” queens mate on the wing with 10 (+/-) doomed drones. In a deadly “Nantucket sleigh ride,” he clasps her, inserts his endophallus (inside out phallus) into her sting chamber, is briefly paralyzed, falls backwards, and explodes his phallic tip rocketing ejaculate into her. Sex and death.

ID and Habitat
Bees suck nectar into two vessels, a traditional stomach and a nest-bound “tanker truck.” They also eat and deliberately collect, in specially adapted leg pouches, or “scopa,” pollen as their primary source of protein and larvae food. In the desert southwest they are an invasive species, evicting native “solitary” bees that are better adapted to pollinate native plants.

Dangers Real and Imagined

I’ll be floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee.
- Muhammad Ali

Venom-induced pain from barbed stingers is scary, but nothing compared to the carnage: bees are responsible for more deaths than the rest of the “Top 10” combined, mostly because of extreme allergic reactions combined with the large number of people stung. Also, if bees perceive a threat to their hive, they release strong pheromones signaling other bees to launch a Kamikaze attack.

Bee stings release apitoxin, a neurotoxin similar to rattlesnake venom. It inflames skin, coagulates blood, and triggers a dangerous anaphylactic response (massive release of histamines) in highly allergic victims. Fortunately, less than 2% of the population is seriously allergic and most bees are peaceful.

Hot Tip
Don’t provoke trouble. Common sense helps: keep away from hives, avoid wearing bright colors (especially Van Gogh yellow), avoid perfumes and floral soaps, and avoid clothing-optional resorts; wear long sleeves, socks and shoes. Cover all food products and garbage, and don’t swat at bees: miss, you may anger it; hit, you may trigger a defensive swarm.

RX
If stung, immediately (within seconds, if possible) scrape away the singer using a side-to-side motion; credit cards work, or if bankrupt, try fingernails. Time is of the essence, remove the stinger within 15 seconds and very little venom will enter your body. Don’t mess with tweezers or anything fancy since 1) you’ll be wasting time, and 2) it may further embed the stinger.

Quickly (don’t run as this may alarm the hive) leave the area and finish dressing the wound inside a car or a closed bathroom as you will stink of attack pheromones. Wash with soap, water and antibacterial. Ice the area and use bug bite medication (topical and oral antihistamines) to ease pain and itching. Rubbing may spread germs into your open wound.

If you know you’re allergic, carry a bee sting kit with a syringe of epinephrine. Even if not currently allergic, you may develop allergies, especially if you have a history of stings; bee keepers are especially at risk. Also, stings are puncture wounds, so keep your tetanus shots up to date, once every ten years.

Anaphylactic shock is a known killer. Call 911 or get to the ER if you become physically ill, mentally confused (that is, more than usual) or have trouble breathing.
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Death Meter: 10 out of 10 if you are highly allergic, otherwise 4 out of 10 since you can develop an allergy without knowing it.