Bee Story

In article <[email hidden]>,

catzz66 said:

It won't prevent all stings, but your experience makes a good case for
wearing some kind of eyewear all the time.

Well, some people (Mark Hickey) say I wear blinders all the time
already. 🙂

--
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"Hadron Quark" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

catzz66 <[email hidden]> writes:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

It won't prevent all stings, but your experience makes a good case for
wearing some kind of eyewear all the time. I started doing that after
getting a gnat stuck in my eye. I can't imagine how it would feel to
get a sting on your eyeball.

There would ne no pain at all : the ball is just a big lump of jelly
isnt it? ...

Speaking as someone who has had several surgical procedures including a
laser cauterization thingee.

It hurts like #$%^#$%!!

Quoted message said:

Women seem to have this problem more than men, I suppose, because they
usually expose more skin than men, needing to bare their cleavage,
(vamping all the time). This takes some sympathy out of the event but
more technically interesting is that insects, having simple but
extremely fast mental processors, can turn their rear facing stingers
toward approaching threats in milliseconds regardless of direction.
It isn't as though bees were flying backward or being overtaken.

Reminds me of a time many years ago when I had just sat up after
falling off the back of a very fast paceline. I saw this fuzzy brown
dot hovering far ahead of me that didn't appear to be moving but kept
getting bigger. By the time I had figured out what it was it hit me
high on the inside of my right thigh. Stung me right through my
shorts. An inch or two to the left and it would have hit my chamois,
which probably would have had a better outcome.

I never figured out what kind of insect it was, it all happened too
fast. I do know it hurt a lot and raised quite a welt.

jeverett3<AT>earthlink<DOT>net http://home.earthlink.net/~jeverett3

Mark Hickey said:

Quoted message said:

Wow, a little subtle hostility there, JB? How about the fact that
women have larger /breasts/ than men, and that means that there
will be a larger /opening/ in the jersey front in which a bug or
bee can be trapped? (Not a bad way to go, I must say.) Does one
need to be a structural engineer to grasp this rather obvious
difference?

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

more technically interesting is that insects, having simple but
extremely fast mental processors, can turn their rear facing
stingers toward approaching threats in milliseconds regardless of
direction. It isn't as though bees were flying backward or being
overtaken.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

What are you smoking tonight, JB? It's easy to overtake a bee in
flight and run right into its stinger -- happened to me as a kid
with a freaking bumblebee that stung the bee-jeezus outta me right
on the thigh. Thing swelled up to the size of a football in about
2 seconds. (My thigh, I mean, not the GD bee.) Bees don't have to
be "flying backwards" to sting a bicyclist. Just the opposite.
HTH, Perplexed Bill

Quoted message said:

I've been stung twice by flying insects (one was certainly a wasp -
not sure about the other). Both times I'm certain I "overtook" the
insect in flight - I'm struggling with what's unusual or difficult
about that process. Both times the little bugger got in my jersey
and nailed me (didn't realize that the sting was supposed to happen
on impact - or am I missing something else?).

That is a different matter related to stupid jerseys that we have
today so that advertising can be printed on them. You'll notice that
these have zippers that often go to the waist so that they can be
ridden open for cooling. Knit-wear jerseys only had a zipper for the
jersey to fit over one's head and were not opened for air cooling.

The insect stings of interest are the in flight ones and these are
apparent from the force of impact in addition to the sting. Letting
bees fly into an open jersey was not common before with wool or
acrylic knit-wear.

Quoted message said:

Put me down as perplexed too...

About what?

Jobst Brandt

In article <[email hidden]>, Hadron Quark <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

catzz66 said:

Kevan Smith said:

I'm not allergic to stings, but ever since I got stung ON THE
EYEBALL by wasps, I avoid stinging insects assidouusly. The other
day I was in a paceline and we were cruising about 24 when a big
bumblebee flew into my helmet. I took my hands off the bars, got
that helmet off and shook it out and put it back on in less than
half a minute. The adrenalin rush was intense.

It won't prevent all stings, but your experience makes a good case for
wearing some kind of eyewear all the time. I started doing that after
getting a gnat stuck in my eye. I can't imagine how it would feel to
get a sting on your eyeball.

There would ne no pain at all : the ball is just a big lump of jelly
isnt it? ...

no.

"further research is indicated"

..max

John Everett said:

Quoted message said:

Women seem to have this problem more than men, I suppose, because
they usually expose more skin than men, needing to bare their
cleavage, (vamping all the time). This takes some sympathy out of
the event but more technically interesting is that insects, having
simple but extremely fast mental processors, can turn their rear
facing stingers toward approaching threats in milliseconds
regardless of direction. It isn't as though bees were flying
backward or being overtaken.

Reminds me of a time many years ago when I had just sat up after
falling off the back of a very fast paceline. I saw this fuzzy brown
dot hovering far ahead of me that didn't appear to be moving but kept
getting bigger. By the time I had figured out what it was it hit me
high on the inside of my right thigh. Stung me right through my
shorts. An inch or two to the left and it would have hit my chamois,
which probably would have had a better outcome.

I never figured out what kind of insect it was, it all happened too
fast. I do know it hurt a lot and raised quite a welt.

But...but...Jobst says that what happened to you is impossible! LOL (Or
highly unlikely, at least.)

It's easy to overtake a stinging insect, AND they don't have to be "flying
backwards" to inflict pain.

Maybe he was just having a bad night...

BS

Quoted message said:

Mark Hickey said:

Quoted message said:

Wow, a little subtle hostility there, JB? How about the fact that
women have larger /breasts/ than men, and that means that there
will be a larger /opening/ in the jersey front in which a bug or
bee can be trapped? (Not a bad way to go, I must say.) Does one
need to be a structural engineer to grasp this rather obvious
difference?

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> more technically interesting is that insects, having simple but
> extremely fast mental processors, can turn their rear facing
> stingers toward approaching threats in milliseconds regardless of
> direction. It isn't as though bees were flying backward or being
> overtaken.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

What are you smoking tonight, JB? It's easy to overtake a bee in
flight and run right into its stinger -- happened to me as a kid
with a freaking bumblebee that stung the bee-jeezus outta me right
on the thigh. Thing swelled up to the size of a football in about
2 seconds. (My thigh, I mean, not the GD bee.) Bees don't have to
be "flying backwards" to sting a bicyclist. Just the opposite.
HTH, Perplexed Bill

Quoted message said:

I've been stung twice by flying insects (one was certainly a wasp -
not sure about the other). Both times I'm certain I "overtook" the
insect in flight - I'm struggling with what's unusual or difficult
about that process. Both times the little bugger got in my jersey
and nailed me (didn't realize that the sting was supposed to happen
on impact - or am I missing something else?).

That is a different matter related to stupid jerseys that we have
today so that advertising can be printed on them. You'll notice that
these have zippers that often go to the waist so that they can be
ridden open for cooling. Knit-wear jerseys only had a zipper for the
jersey to fit over one's head and were not opened for air cooling.

The insect stings of interest are the in flight ones and these are
apparent from the force of impact in addition to the sting. Letting
bees fly into an open jersey was not common before with wool or
acrylic knit-wear.

Quoted message said:

Put me down as perplexed too...

About what?

About your saying, "It isn't as though bees were flying backward or being
overtaken."

The latter is commonplace and the former ridiculous. (Hint: this happens
/regardless/ of jersey zipper lengths, and indeed often in places a jersey
never touches. Head, thigh, arm, etc. HTH?)

Hadron Quark <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

There would ne no pain at all : the ball is just a big lump of jelly
isnt it? ...

The sting injects foreign matter. My whole eye swelled shut. It was red and
painful and throbbing. I was actually stung three times, though only once
on the eyball. The other two were around my eye. I was really scared of
going blind.

How it happened: I was hiking in tall grass scouting a game trail and upset
a guinea wasp nest built on a stalk at eye level.

--
fnood fneep gnip gnop
http://greep.flood.nit
[email hidden]

"Sorni" wrote: (clip) Maybe he was just having a bad night...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The insect, or Jobst?

In article <[email hidden]>,

catzz66 said:

It won't prevent all stings, but your experience makes a good case for
wearing some kind of eyewear all the time. I started doing that after
getting a gnat stuck in my eye. I can't imagine how it would feel to
get a sting on your eyeball.

I can tell you how it feels to ride through a swarm of baby spiders:
you can sorta feel them skittering around in your hair for a few days
afterward. The sensation is impervious even to multiple showers and
hair washings, like Lady Macbeth's "damn'd spot".

I've had dragonflies collide with my helmet with a loud "thwak!"
That's a real waker-upper.

I concur with you about the eyewear idea. Last year I
tempted fate one time by riding without eyewear, and got
some kind of mayfly/midge/gnat/noseeum in my eye. As I was
trying to extricate it with my finger I got another one in
the other eye. A hasty pull-over to the curb and a little
salty language ensued, whereupon I aspirated yet another bug.

I've had many a bee accidentally crash into me, without stinging,
only to shake-off the shock of the collision and continue on with
their workaday lives. I think if bees, wasps or flying ants
really intend to sting someone, they've got to somehow plant
their feet on their victim first. If they coincidentally hit
someone feet-first, I think that's when they're more likely to
do some spur-of-the-moment stinging. Especially if the victim
is breathing CO2 on them (which really riles 'em.) Lone, foraging
bees don't really want to sting, as that would lead to their
inevitable death. Swarms of course are a different matter. And
yellowjackets and other wasps & hornets can sting away with impunity,
because they're stingers aren't barbed. I've had one wasp/ant thingie
actually bite into me with its mandible pincers as it hopped its
aftward stinger around, zapping me in several places around the radius..

It may be of passing interest to note that the social insects
with stingers (the "workers"😉 are generally females.

The trajectories of incipiently colliding insects remind me
of a demonstration about General Relativity -- to one observer
the trajectory is an arc, to another it's a straight line.

Yellowjackets especially seem to have "moods", ranging from
sociable friendliness, to curiosity, to downright surliness as
the warm weather draws to a close.

I find calamine lotion relieves the pain of stings PDQ.

cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Kevan Smith said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

catzz66 said:

It won't prevent all stings, but your experience makes a good case for
wearing some kind of eyewear all the time.

Well, some people (Mark Hickey) say I wear blinders all the time
already. 🙂

Heh.

Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $795 ti frame

In article <[email hidden]>,

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I've been stung twice by flying insects (one was certainly a wasp -
not sure about the other). Both times I'm certain I "overtook" the
insect in flight - I'm struggling with what's unusual or difficult
about that process. Both times the little bugger got in my jersey
and nailed me (didn't realize that the sting was supposed to happen
on impact - or am I missing something else?).

That is a different matter related to stupid jerseys that we have
today so that advertising can be printed on them. You'll notice that
these have zippers that often go to the waist so that they can be
ridden open for cooling. Knit-wear jerseys only had a zipper for the
jersey to fit over one's head and were not opened for air cooling.

While riding yesterday I had a bee go down the neck of my tee shirt.
I instinctively reached in to close my hand around her and subesquently
release her (per my usual habit,) but this time I accidentally killed
her, feeling two bee parts rattling around in my open fist. I can
usually do it, but this time I got some tee shirt fabric caught in my
hand too, and I guess it folded around the bee. I felt rather badly
about killing her.

In my childhood I learned much about handling bees from a market
horticulturist neighbour who inculcated in me great respect for
bees, as well as how to deal with and respond to their behaviours.
He'd catch bees in his hand and then let them go, just to show
people who are scared of bees that they'd really rather not sting;
at least, not the lone foragers. Note I'm talking about Northern,
as-of-yet-unAfricanized bees.

When I hang my tee shirts out to dry I always clamp the neck shut
against the coathanger they're on with a clothespeg, so the neck
opening doesn't stretch too much. But that approach isn't 100%
bee-proof. Apparently neither is rescuing them by hand.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure bees, wasps and hornets have to plant
their feet in order to sting. Of course that can happen in
a miniscule fraction of a second. And the worst thing to do
is to breathe on them. Carbon dioxide infuriates them. So
part of the trick to catching bees in your hand, or avoiding
getting stung in any case, is to not look (and thereby breathe)
directly at what you're doing.

cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Tom Keats said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I've been stung twice by flying insects (one was certainly a wasp -
not sure about the other). Both times I'm certain I "overtook" the
insect in flight - I'm struggling with what's unusual or difficult
about that process. Both times the little bugger got in my jersey
and nailed me (didn't realize that the sting was supposed to happen
on impact - or am I missing something else?).

That is a different matter related to stupid jerseys that we have
today so that advertising can be printed on them. You'll notice that
these have zippers that often go to the waist so that they can be
ridden open for cooling. Knit-wear jerseys only had a zipper for the
jersey to fit over one's head and were not opened for air cooling.

While riding yesterday I had a bee go down the neck of my tee shirt.
I instinctively reached in to close my hand around her and subesquently
release her (per my usual habit,) but this time I accidentally killed
her, feeling two bee parts rattling around in my open fist. I can
usually do it, but this time I got some tee shirt fabric caught in my
hand too, and I guess it folded around the bee. I felt rather badly
about killing her.

In my childhood I learned much about handling bees from a market
horticulturist neighbour who inculcated in me great respect for
bees, as well as how to deal with and respond to their behaviours.
He'd catch bees in his hand and then let them go, just to show
people who are scared of bees that they'd really rather not sting;
at least, not the lone foragers. Note I'm talking about Northern,
as-of-yet-unAfricanized bees.

When I hang my tee shirts out to dry I always clamp the neck shut
against the coathanger they're on with a clothespeg, so the neck
opening doesn't stretch too much. But that approach isn't 100%
bee-proof. Apparently neither is rescuing them by hand.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure bees, wasps and hornets have to plant
their feet in order to sting. Of course that can happen in
a miniscule fraction of a second. And the worst thing to do
is to breathe on them. Carbon dioxide infuriates them. So
part of the trick to catching bees in your hand, or avoiding
getting stung in any case, is to not look (and thereby breathe)
directly at what you're doing.

cheers,
Tom

Uh, Tom,
You are almost right about them having to plant their feet, except that
I got the stinger end first in my arm while riding a motorcycle at about
45 MPH. I just remember a 'whap' and looked down at my arm and there was
a stinger stuck in my right biceps, pumping venom, and no sign of the
bee. The bee was probably going "What the #@%&?" as much as me at that
point. That was one of the very few days I rode with only a tee shirt on
but it was one of those 95 degree days in Santa Clara (Silicon Valley).
I think if you hit them stinger first at any kind of speed the inertia
jams the stinger into you. As for getting one in my shirt alive, that
experience I will have to wait for.
So far we have the tame bees here in northern California, since a small
girl friend of my granddaughter's shows off by catching them in her hand.
And, yes, breathing on them will trigger a reaction since almost all
warm blooded animals who can blow a breath on them are potential insect
predators. Mice make a pretty good living in the wild by mugging bugs
and eating them.
Happy bug free riding.
Bill Baka

In article <[email hidden]>,

Bill said:

Quoted message said:

Uh, Tom,
You are almost right about them having to plant their feet, except that
I got the stinger end first in my arm while riding a motorcycle at about
45 MPH. I just remember a 'whap' and looked down at my arm and there was
a stinger stuck in my right biceps, pumping venom, and no sign of the
bee.

I'll bet dollars to TimBits it landed on its feet (or its belly)
before it stung ya. Like I say, it can happen in a miniscule
fraction of a second.

Quoted message said:

The bee was probably going "What the #@%&?" as much as me at that
point. That was one of the very few days I rode with only a tee shirt on
but it was one of those 95 degree days in Santa Clara (Silicon Valley).
I think if you hit them stinger first at any kind of speed the inertia
jams the stinger into you.

I don't think so. When bees are in flight, their abdomens & stingers
droop down a little, they don't stick out backwards like some sort of
reverse narwhal tusk waiting for us to impale ourselves on 'em. If you
"rear-end" a bee I'm pretty sure you'll either just curl it's abdomen &
stinger a little under the rest of it, or flip it so it can plant its
feet or belly on you, and then sting ya. I often hit bees or have them
hit me. If they land on me on their backs (as they usually seem to do,)
they can't immediately sting. Bees can direct their stingers downward,
but not so easily upward or straight backward.

Quoted message said:

As for getting one in my shirt alive, that
experience I will have to wait for.

It kinda tickles on yer chest hairs.

cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Tom Keats said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Bill said:

Uh, Tom,
You are almost right about them having to plant their feet, except that
I got the stinger end first in my arm while riding a motorcycle at about
45 MPH. I just remember a 'whap' and looked down at my arm and there was
a stinger stuck in my right biceps, pumping venom, and no sign of the
bee.

I'll bet dollars to TimBits it landed on its feet (or its belly)
before it stung ya. Like I say, it can happen in a miniscule
fraction of a second.

Quoted message said:

The bee was probably going "What the #@%&?" as much as me at that
point. That was one of the very few days I rode with only a tee shirt on
but it was one of those 95 degree days in Santa Clara (Silicon Valley).
I think if you hit them stinger first at any kind of speed the inertia
jams the stinger into you.

I don't think so. When bees are in flight, their abdomens & stingers
droop down a little, they don't stick out backwards like some sort of
reverse narwhal tusk waiting for us to impale ourselves on 'em. If you
"rear-end" a bee I'm pretty sure you'll either just curl it's abdomen &
stinger a little under the rest of it, or flip it so it can plant its
feet or belly on you, and then sting ya. I often hit bees or have them
hit me. If they land on me on their backs (as they usually seem to do,)
they can't immediately sting. Bees can direct their stingers downward,
but not so easily upward or straight backward.

Quoted message said:

As for getting one in my shirt alive, that
experience I will have to wait for.

It kinda tickles on yer chest hairs.

cheers,
Tom

All maybes too me so I won't argue anything. It was just too fast for
human brain cells to follow.
Bill Baka