I have been afraid of bees ever since I was a little kid and a giant bumblebee got trapped in my shirt. I ran home screaming while it buzzed around inside my clothes, banging me, as desperate as I was for freedom. I was totally hysterical by the time I got home and my mom ripped my shirt off to discover a giant dead bumblebee on the ground. I'm pretty sure I fainted. I can't remember if I got stung or not. Since it was dead I'm thinking probably yes. Or maybe my screams killed it. Poor bee.
Flash forward a thousand years later and I'm still afraid of bees. My friend Cathy and I were out in her yard and she was telling me about the bee hive she and her husband were installing. This, for me, was pure insanity. But since Cathy is not normally insane I listened to her talk about how bees were declining in population, how this was bad because we really do need them to pollinate plants for us. The fact that she wasn't afraid of them totally upped her coolness factor for me. But as much as I would like to be like Cathy, I'm not going to bee like Cathy. No backyard beehives for me.
This morning on KQED I heard a story about the Urban Bee Project. Basically the net of the story was this: we need more bees. The overall bee population has declined 30% in 20 years. We lack bees the most in urban areas because they lack habitat and food and, well face it, most neighbors don't like it when you install a beehive in your backyard.
Luckily we don't have to. There is another kind of bee, a wild bee that doesn't live in large colonies, but lives alone or in small groups in the cracks and crevices of the city. If we had more of them, it's likely they would pick up the slack. How do we get more of them? Easy, just plant more of stuff they like.
It's going to be a beautiful weekend for those of us who live in the Bay Area and it's a good bet you will be outside (those of you with snow will have to wait a bit). If you feel like planting something, why not pick from this bee-friendly plant list? That way you'll have a great garden that also supports the much-needed bee population.
The Urban Bee Project web site is very informative and explains the differences between bees and wasps, why bees are needed and how to build a bee-friendly garden.
And if bees really scare you, or you happen to bee allergic (sorry, couldn't resist) then perhaps you could build a butterfly garden instead.
Eeek? Bees? In my yard? Really? I'll have nightmares until the end of time.I was about 7. And I had a posse of bees fly up my pants legs. I screamed like a little girl (oh, wait, I was a little girl) and pulled my pants down then and there. The neighbors thought it was all pretty funny. But I didn't. And I got stung multiple times. Now I'm allergic.Will somebody else do my part with the re-population of bees? Pretty please?
Posted by: Stacy | 03/16/2007 at 10:52 AM
[this is good] Bees are your friends! They aren't mean like wasps, and it's true... we need them. If I had a yard I'd bee it up!
Posted by: kitty | 03/16/2007 at 11:50 AM
Bees, like every insect, are necessary to our eco-system. In fact, it's a shame that urbanization are pushing more and more of the natural habitat close to extinction.Anyhow, when I was younger I used to catch them by gently cupping them in my hand and then pet them. There is a certain way that you can hold bees where you basically immobilize them and they are like in a trance. It's so cool! Of course, it doesn't hurt them, but calms them down. I love bees. 3
Posted by: Renée | 03/16/2007 at 11:56 AM
Bees are so important that Einstein said "If honey bees become extinct, human society will follow in four years.The amount that bees pollenate echos down through our food chain and livestock in massive waves. Without bees, we would have no food.
Posted by: MainMor | 03/16/2007 at 12:57 PM
[this is good] My neighbor has a bee hive . When we first moved in they used our pool as a water source. I got stung multiple times. John put in a couple of sources near the hive and problem solved. Other than that we've enjoyed having the bees as neighors. The flowers get pollinated and we get honey from John in the fall.
Posted by: Barry | 03/16/2007 at 02:06 PM
[this is good] My mother once jumped out of a moving car to avoid a bee when I was a kid. And yes...she passed that phobia onto me. Wanna see me lose all my cool points? Let a bee wander in my general vicinity. I will pop a ligament trying to get outta dodge.
Posted by: RPM | 03/16/2007 at 03:37 PM
I despise bees. There must be other insects we could cultivate to spread pollen instead of bees. And we've made fake sugar (splenda) how hard would it be to recreate honey in a labratory somewhere? Can't we, I don't know, clone it or something. I have to think the world would be better off with fewer bees. *shudder*
Posted by: Sassyone | 03/17/2007 at 06:54 PM
I have a bee thing, too. Been stung three times. Once when I was a kid and stepped on one in my front yard. Then two more times with bees in my shirt -- once while camping and again in high school when I knew it had flown in there but was too "cool" to let anyone know there was a bee in my shirt by flailing around screaming lifting my shirt. I hate beeses to pieces.
Posted by: Paul | 03/17/2007 at 07:59 PM
I have a bee phobia, too. My family has always made fun of me for it. So nice to know I am not alone.
Posted by: Tchatchke | 03/18/2007 at 02:00 PM
I've decided now that I have to get over my bee phobia. We need bees and really, if I'm not bothering themby getting hysterical, batting my hands around and running into walls, they tend not to bother me.
Wasps, on the other hand, are evil. Any time I see them it is open season. I'm getting good at killing them too.
Just the other day a wasp flew in to the house without us knowing it. Juju was playing near her giant Barbie head (yes, we have them in all sizes over here) when she got hysterical over the "spider" that was in her Barbie's hair. I advised Juju to chill, that I would take care of the, oh shit, giant wasp. I took a cloth napkin and threw it on top of the wasp/Barbie headand carried the whole thing outside. Then I used the napkin to swat the wasp to death.
Just think, if that nasty thing had stung Juju we'd have started a whole new cycle of being stung as a little kid and being terrified forever.
Posted by: karen | 03/18/2007 at 07:25 PM
bees in general don't bother me. its the friking scary hornet class that scares the crap out of me here in the mid-atlantic. they come in a few sizes - bee size to about as long as your index finger (no joke!)
all of them can sting repeatedly and bite with mandibles
my 2 year old reached his hand into an outdoor light housing and grabbed a nest, amazingly i went into parental adrenal super-speed and yanked him away before he learned an awful lesson
Posted by: al | 03/29/2007 at 05:50 PM
Wow! You have some great reflexes!
Posted by: karen | 03/30/2007 at 09:51 AM
well you know how it is with your kids, somehow the super-human parenting powers kick in and you make it happen
Posted by: al | 03/30/2007 at 11:44 AM
I am terrifed of all insects. Whether they specialize in attack or disgust mode, it doesn't matter.
I was chased home from kindgarten by a bumblebee. I never forgot/forgave it. I don't actively kill them, if I'm in their yard - literally - but if I find one in my home (yes, there was once a honeybee in my kitchen)...I move; I mean, I pay my final rent and leave.
Posted by: Aubrey | 04/06/2007 at 02:07 AM