I have to imagine there is a point in every entomologist’s life where they realize they have a much lower threshold for fear of insects than is average. For me this was a conversation with friends where – after marveling over an internet herpetologist’s confidence in picking up everglades reptiles – I said “I do the same thing with some insects, but I know they’re small and won’t hurt me.” A comment that received a resounding “you do what?”
At the time I was thinking of beetles, hemipterans, cellar ‘spiders’, and (most often) male Carpenter bees (pictured left), but when going through my photos, I realized I also have a confidence to interact with bees in general. For some bees this confidence is pretty easily explained. Any male bee I see can be scooped up without fear of being stung. Stingers are modified ovipositors, and since male bees don’t lay eggs they can’t sting. No worries.
However, I also have interacted with several bees that I know can sting without worry. Sometimes you see a queen bee on clover and try to hold the flower still so you can take a photo of her. Then she decides your finger is a more stable place to perch. But I wasn’t trying to hurt her and she was focused on what she was doing.
Then sometimes on a cold day you’re trying to get a photo of a bee holding onto a leaf and the external warmth provided by your hand is a good enough reason to climb off the leaf they were clinging to.
Or during a field sampling day a bumblebee caught in a freak rainstorm climbs first onto your sampling equipment and then onto you when you pick it up.
And this is not even acknowledging all of the sweat bees I can never get photos of fast enough before they are done sampling my field season perfume. Obviously, I am not advocating for people to try and hold every bee they see, particularly not without training. But I think there is something to be said about the importance of education and insect extension in increasing understanding of these tiny animals. Most of the time the average arthropod is not interested in biting or stinging you. Even if you catch them, their first goal is usually to get away. Through sending some of these photos to my friends I have been told they are now looking at the different bees at their flowers, when before they would have given any flying insect a few meters berth. Maybe by sharing these here, you too can spend time around these little ladies without fear.