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Has anyone else noticed an explosion of bees lately? (lemm.ee)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

44 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I might as well ask this since I got stung or bit by a bee yesterday during America day.

Last year, when taking strolls, it was rare enough for a bee to swarm around me that I could go whole strolls without it happening sometimes.

This year, they swarm around me everywhere. Everywhere. It's like fighting your way through putty patrollers. They respawn instantly, there's absolutely no lag. Shoo one away and one comes back five seconds later. Sometimes for three hour strolls encompassing six miles.

What the heck happened? Anyone else notice this?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

If you're getting them flying into your face or stinging you when you're not messing with their nest, it's very possible you're dealing with Africanized Honey Bees (AFBs). They're basically impossible to tell apart just by looking at them. Aside from genetic testing, you have to do it by behavior. Lots of little differences, but two more obvious ones are:

They'll pretty much make a nest in any kind of a hole, including in the ground, while European bees like larger cavities in walls or hollow trees.
They defend their nests much more aggressively and at a greater distance. They'll fly up to your face, and tend to sting much more liberally (European bees rarely sting unless you try to squash them or actively threaten their nest).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Also, most people in the US think that yellow jackets are bees when they are in fact wasps. So it could be a wasp that stung OP.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

For sure could be. They don't leave their stingers, they hurt like hell, and they're complete assholes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Complete asshole almost always means yellow jacket.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The ones I deal with only ever stung/bit me twice despite dealing with them all year by the minute. Do the stings/bites have any difference? My thumb feels felt like it got a flu shot jab, but it didn't hurt after five minutes except for a very mild flu shot kind of soreness. No stinger in the skin either, at least none I can see.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I don't believe there's a venom difference. They got called "killer bees" because they tend to swarm people much more often than European, not because an individual sting is worse.

With that reaction, and no stinger, are you sure it was a honey bee? They pretty much always leave a stinger.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

There's a tiny, tiny black spot on my thumb, like the size of a dust mite due to how small it is. I'm lucky with my glasses I can even see it, but I don't know if that's the stinger or just a dent it left. The bee did fly away unharmed afterward.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It sounds like the stinger did not come out when you were stung, so you were probably stung by a wasp rather than a bee.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Well shoot, I always was taught wasps were the ones I should be worried about health-wise. Seeing this to be wrong, now I'm having thoughts.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

When the stinger comes out, it's basically the whole back end of the bee. It's kind of fiendish: the venom sack and a little muscle are in the very end of their butt. The stinger has a barb, so when they stick it in you, and you brush them off, the whole assembly rips off the bee and the muscle keeps pumping the venom into you. The bee dies.

So it's very obvious if the stinger came off.