Miss Perspicacia Tick wrote:
Kay wrote:
[...]
Is it obvious? Someone posted here the other day saying, IIRC,
that
unlike honey bees, bumbles don't leave their sting behind.

Actually, Kay, it's a common misconception. Honey bees do not leave
their stings, bumbles do. [...]

Ang abaht, mate! You got c & v for that?

--
Mike.

On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 17:51:00 +0100, Miss Perspicacia Tick wrote:

Kay wrote:

Is it obvious? Someone posted here the other day saying, IIRC, that
unlike honey bees, bumbles don't leave their sting behind.

Actually, Kay, it's a common misconception. Honey bees do not leave their
stings, bumbles do.

Not so I'm afraid. As an ex-beekeeper, I can promise you that honey
bees do leave their stings in you; I've had to scrape out more stings
than I care to think of! I don't know about bumbles though.

--
Cheers, Serena
Sometimes I sits and thinks ... and sometimes I just sits. (Punch
cartoon)

On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 13:29:02 +0100, Kay wrote:

I've never found that with wasps. Whenever I've been stung, it's because
I've inadvertently hit, knelt on or done something else to the wasp
which it could quite reasonably consider to be a threat.

Same here. I remember one year, I had a wasps' nest which had its
front door opening into my conservatory, which I used as a utility
room. The air in there was always thick with wasps but despite
regularly going back and forth through the throng, whenever I was
doing any laundry, I was never stung.

--
Cheers, Serena
Generally speaking, it is inhumane to detain a fleeting insight. (Fran
Lebowitz)

The message
from "Miss Perspicacia Tick" contains these words:

Kay wrote:
In article , Miss
Perspicacia Tick writes

I love bumbles - it takes a great deal, I've found, to make them
sting. In fact, I have picked them up, in my cupped hands, to
release them outside when they have stumbled into the house. Had a
buff-tail sit on my arm the other day and it was very strokable
(well they are, they're all velvety!) I have never been stung by one
- obviously, stinging is a *very* last resort as, obviously, it's
suicidal.

Is it obvious? Someone posted here the other day saying, IIRC, that
unlike honey bees, bumbles don't leave their sting behind.

Actually, Kay, it's a common misconception. Honey bees do not leave their
stings, bumbles do.

I've been stung by both. Kay is correct, you have it the wrong way round.

Janet

"Miss Perspicacia Tick" wrote in message
...
Kay wrote:
In article , Miss
Perspicacia Tick writes

I love bumbles - it takes a great deal, I've found, to make them
sting. In fact, I have picked them up, in my cupped hands, to
release them outside when they have stumbled into the house. Had a
buff-tail sit on my arm the other day and it was very strokable
(well they are, they're all velvety!) I have never been stung by one
- obviously, stinging is a *very* last resort as, obviously, it's
suicidal.

Is it obvious? Someone posted here the other day saying, IIRC, that
unlike honey bees, bumbles don't leave their sting behind.

Actually, Kay, it's a common misconception. Honey bees do not leave their
stings, bumbles do. Neither do wasps as I know as one flew up my trowser
leg
one summer and then proceeded to sting me about 20 times as it tried to
make
its escape... I had to go to A&E for an adrenaline shot (and I'm the most
needle phobic person you're ever likely to come across!).



Worker honey bee stings are barbed and can indeed stick in the skin of the
'victim', complete with the venom sac. I know this from personal experience.

OTOH, I have never been stung by a 'bumble', they seem most imperturbable:-)

Whenever I need to remove a wasp I put a smidgen of Jam on my finger to get it to hop on, then once outside, gently wipe the jam onto a window sill or something.
The wasp invariably stays with the jam and and I've never been stung. I think they smell fear though, which could explain a lot.....

The message
from Martin contains these words:

I'm surprised they don't smell your sticky window sill. Have you tried
smearing jam on snails?

That's silly! With the speed of snails you'd soon have a traffic jam.

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

Serena Blanchflower wrote:
On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 13:29:02 +0100, Kay wrote:

I've never found that with wasps. Whenever I've been stung, it's
because I've inadvertently hit, knelt on or done something else to
the wasp which it could quite reasonably consider to be a threat.

Same here. I remember one year, I had a wasps' nest which had its
front door opening into my conservatory, which I used as a utility
room. The air in there was always thick with wasps but despite
regularly going back and forth through the throng, whenever I was
doing any laundry, I was never stung.

Hello, stranger! You don't often venture into this neck of the woods (at
least, I've never seen you here before). How goes it, friend...?

Miss Perspicacia Tick writes
I love bumbles - it takes a great deal, I've found, to make them sting. In
fact, I have picked them up, in my cupped hands, to release them outside
when they have stumbled into the house. Had a buff-tail sit on my arm the
other day and it was very strokable (well they are, they're all velvety!) I
have never been stung by one - obviously, stinging is a *very* last resort
as, obviously, it's suicidal.


Had about six of them appear on the lounge carpet over a period of a few
weeks, each looking pretty much finished. So I persuaded them to crawl
onto a bit of card, took them outside and put a blob of honey (normal
stuff from a jar) near them, watched them lap it up, clean themselves,
rev up, do a wobbly circuit and then buzz off. Very satisfying.
--
David

you can talk a bumble bee out of the window, I've done this several times,
'up a bit, left a bit, down a bit' to the astonishment of classes of kids.
It never works with wasps, I think they lack the brain cells



"Dave" wrote in message
...
Miss Perspicacia Tick writes
I love bumbles - it takes a great deal, I've found, to make them sting. In
fact, I have picked them up, in my cupped hands, to release them outside
when they have stumbled into the house. Had a buff-tail sit on my arm the
other day and it was very strokable (well they are, they're all velvety!)
I
have never been stung by one - obviously, stinging is a *very* last resort
as, obviously, it's suicidal.


Had about six of them appear on the lounge carpet over a period of a few
weeks, each looking pretty much finished. So I persuaded them to crawl
onto a bit of card, took them outside and put a blob of honey (normal
stuff from a jar) near them, watched them lap it up, clean themselves,
rev up, do a wobbly circuit and then buzz off. Very satisfying.
--
David