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The importance of the honey bee to the Irish economy, not to mention the continued survival of mankind, is not to be underestimated. The recent phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder has left scientists scratching their heads as they try to figure out just why our bees keep dying.
On today’s The Right Hook, George talked to Philip McCabe, the president of Apimondia European Commission, part of the international federation of beekeepers’ associations.
Find out what had him abuzz and what new threat is poised to wipe out our bees by listening here:
While we all understand that the plight of the bee is tied inexorably with our own, for those of us who’ve been on the receiving end of one of their stingers, having sympathy can be tough. And if they got you in your nostril, it’s nigh-on impossible.
But where is the worst place on the body to actually get stung?
Well an entomology student at Cornell University in upstate New York decided to find out, and exposed his body to the brutal sting of the bee. Michael Smith captured numerous bees and pressed their stingers to different parts of his anatomy to find the worst place to experience the pain.
Where is the pain most intensely felt on the body? [PeerJ]
Each bee sting was pressed into his flesh for a minute, with the offending pain then rated from one to 10 on the scale.
One man’s pinch is another man’s excruciation, which is why Walsh bulked up the scientific qualities of his research by using the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, a scale used to rate the painfulness of diverse insect stings.
Michael Smith subjected his body to a maximum of five stings a day, which were administered during the 60-minute period following 9am. Over 38 consecutive days, 25 separate parts of Smith’s body were stung, three times each.
The good news is that if an bullish bumblebee has it in for you and is on the attack, you should endeavour to expose as much of your skull, upper arm and the tips of your middle toes as possible, as these average best for the least pain suffered. According to Smith:
“Getting stung on the top of the skull was like having an egg smashed on your head. The pain is there, but then it goes away.”
But keep the bees as far as possible from your upper lip, your nostrils, and, with apologies to the patriarchy, your penis. Though bees mostly seem to be equal-opportunity stingers, as it’s the nose that knows most how to feel the pain. In an article in National Geographic, Smith describes a nostril-based sting thus:
“It's electric and pulsating. Especially the nose. Your body really reacts. You're sneezing and wheezing and snot is just dribbling out. Getting stung in the nose is a whole-body experience.”
You can find the full list of body parts which Michael Smith exposed for the good of mankind below:
Michael Smith's bee-sting pain scale [PeerJ]
