I’m both allergic and still slightly phobic, and I would totally want to meet the bees. I have met bees as part of exposure therapy to diminish that phobia. They are cool as hell.
Not just honey bees either. I’ve even developed a fondness for bumblers. I still don’t want them on me, but I smile when I see them.
My parents taught me to leave them alone. I’m Indigenous Canadian and I grew up seeing my parents talking to creatures like they were people. They’d see a bee nearby and just ask it to leave … and most of the time it would. But other times, the bee would linger and they’d start getting mad at it and almost negotiating for it to leave until it eventually did. They would only kill it if it was endangering someone like a small child or baby or if the bee actually stung someone.
I do the same now … if I see a bug or a bee where it shouldn’t be, I just open the door or window and ask it to leave. Funny part is … 9/10 times, the bee takes the advice and just leaves.
Wasps on the other hand set off panic alarms, even with my parents because everyone knows these things are just born angry and will sting you relentlessly no matter what you ask of them.
Curiously, in my country we are taught that for wasps and hornets you must stay silent and wait still until they leave. Like dealing with a blind predator.
We have swarm migration season. Picture thousands of paper wasp all flying through open wide savannas in stereotypical black clouds of murder. There’s no staying away. If they come, you wait.
You know, that’s one of the ways I learned to control the phobia. There’s something about talking to them that cuts the fear off, or turns it down. Can’t say that leave when I ask them too, but it really helps to talk to them.
I think it has a lot to do with pheromones and energy and phenomenon we haven’t fully discovered or explained yet … I don’t go too far into the science of it but I do believe that between humans we can ‘sense’ certain energies, personalities, feelings or anxieties between ourselves … and I think that same process happens between species as well. If we feel fear, anxiety, apprehension or aggression, I think most animals and insects would be able to sense that. There is even some research that suggests that same kind of energy or connection also happens between plants and with plants and trees.
There is a lot of science and biology that leans towards the possibility that there is more to our natural world than what we see, hear, touch and taste. And I think that is why we have these kind of unusual interactions with animals and insects more often than would be explained by chance.
I can definitely say that as my phobia faded, I got buzzed less by any of them. That could be perception shifting more than reality, but I swear that even standing near a hive, they reacted different the calmer I got. They had to be smelling a difference or something.
Earlier this year I had to catch an absolute unit of a bumblebee inside my house. Must’ve been a queen that just came out of hibernation, she was very confused that my ceiling light wasn’t the outside.
I’m both allergic and still slightly phobic, and I would totally want to meet the bees. I have met bees as part of exposure therapy to diminish that phobia. They are cool as hell.
Not just honey bees either. I’ve even developed a fondness for bumblers. I still don’t want them on me, but I smile when I see them.
May I invite you to !beebutts@lemmy.world ?
Here is a preview:
Edit: Most of my contributions to !awwnverts@lemmy.world are also adorable bees:
You made my day with presenting me !beebutts@lemmy.world! Thanks a lot! I also love the wild bees and especially the fluffy but bumblebees 🥰
I love beebutts :) both the actual butts and the community.
I’ve become convinced that bees know how cute their butts are and wiggle them just to give the world a little beauty
That last picture is so adorable. What a cute face!
Bumblebees are fuzzy and cute. Wasps are assholes, though, it’s not just a meme.
I have more trouble with hornets than wasps. But, as long as they aren’t near me, I respect what they do. From afar. Very afar.
Believe it or not, bees, hornets and ants are all wasps. https://youtu.be/u095VH5zp6s
Explains how I got stung by an ant once
I knew ants were, I did not know the others were too
Got stung on the tongue by a wasp as a kid. Never forgave them.
My parents taught me to leave them alone. I’m Indigenous Canadian and I grew up seeing my parents talking to creatures like they were people. They’d see a bee nearby and just ask it to leave … and most of the time it would. But other times, the bee would linger and they’d start getting mad at it and almost negotiating for it to leave until it eventually did. They would only kill it if it was endangering someone like a small child or baby or if the bee actually stung someone.
I do the same now … if I see a bug or a bee where it shouldn’t be, I just open the door or window and ask it to leave. Funny part is … 9/10 times, the bee takes the advice and just leaves.
Wasps on the other hand set off panic alarms, even with my parents because everyone knows these things are just born angry and will sting you relentlessly no matter what you ask of them.
Curiously, in my country we are taught that for wasps and hornets you must stay silent and wait still until they leave. Like dealing with a blind predator.
I’m in northern Ontario in Canada and the wasps we have here can be aggressive no matter what you do, which is why we stay away from them.
We have swarm migration season. Picture thousands of paper wasp all flying through open wide savannas in stereotypical black clouds of murder. There’s no staying away. If they come, you wait.
Holy crap … I rather have swarms of mosquitoes than swarms of wasps … my condolences to you during that migration season … wow
When I come across bees I always talk to them too!
I’m like
And then just keep going with my day.
Glad to hear I’m not the only one who does that.
You know, that’s one of the ways I learned to control the phobia. There’s something about talking to them that cuts the fear off, or turns it down. Can’t say that leave when I ask them too, but it really helps to talk to them.
I think it has a lot to do with pheromones and energy and phenomenon we haven’t fully discovered or explained yet … I don’t go too far into the science of it but I do believe that between humans we can ‘sense’ certain energies, personalities, feelings or anxieties between ourselves … and I think that same process happens between species as well. If we feel fear, anxiety, apprehension or aggression, I think most animals and insects would be able to sense that. There is even some research that suggests that same kind of energy or connection also happens between plants and with plants and trees.
There is a lot of science and biology that leans towards the possibility that there is more to our natural world than what we see, hear, touch and taste. And I think that is why we have these kind of unusual interactions with animals and insects more often than would be explained by chance.
I can definitely say that as my phobia faded, I got buzzed less by any of them. That could be perception shifting more than reality, but I swear that even standing near a hive, they reacted different the calmer I got. They had to be smelling a difference or something.
Earlier this year I had to catch an absolute unit of a bumblebee inside my house. Must’ve been a queen that just came out of hibernation, she was very confused that my ceiling light wasn’t the outside.