Category Archives: Stings

EpiPens: $250 in USA; $85 in Canada

Here’s something sure to stir controversy. The price of the life-saving EpiPen went from $50 US (in 2008) to somewhere between $250 and $400 US this month. That’s if you live in the USA. This morning, I was at the … Continue reading

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Good News: No Killer Bees at the Olympics

Whatever happened to the Killer Bees? Killer Bees – more accurately, hybrids of European and African honey bees – were supposed to destroy the world, or at least kill a lot of people trying. They started out in Brazil, not … Continue reading

Posted in Beekeeping, Culture, or lack thereof, Diseases and Pests, History, Humour, Killer Bees, Movies, Stings, Swarms | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Another Reason to Avoid Walmart?

Sounds like a drug deal gone wrong. They met at a Walmart parking lot to do their business, the public panicked and three bystanders ended up at hospital. It turned out to be a sting operation. The deal was a … Continue reading

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How the Honey Bee Got its Stinger

This will sound like a Rudyard Kipling  Just So Tale. But it goes back a lot further than the early 1900s. The Bee and Jupiter is credited to Aesop, of Aesop’s Fables Plus Punchline fame – and he lived 2,400 … Continue reading

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Stinging Science

I wrote about this fellow last year. He likes to get stung for science. Below, I’ve repeated my blog, The Worst Place to Get Stung, from September, 2014. The big news is that the research scientist – intent on finding … Continue reading

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A Bee Won’t Hurt You If . . .

The city of Edmonton, Alberta, is telling its citizens that bees are good. People sometimes forget. Not long ago, Obama was trying to calm screaming kids on the White House lawn when one child spotted a bee and dozens panicked. … Continue reading

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Bees are Good.

This is one of the best things I’ve seen on the news in a long time. The American president is on the lawn on a beautiful spring afternoon. He’s reading Where the Wild Stings Are to a hundred kids who … Continue reading

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Educating the Humans

Killer bees used to be big news. Enough people are nervous around bees (even the pleasant, nearly harmless, garden bees) that the idea of massive stings is terrifying. “Bee venom is a cocktail of biologically active components that are designed … Continue reading

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The Worst Place to Get Stung

Where is the worst place to get stung? The correct answer is not “on the picnic table.” According to Cornell University graduate research scientist Michael L. Smith, in a study funded by the United States National Science Foundation, the worst … Continue reading

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Cool in the line of fire

 Gotta give the prime minister’s wife credit. She was cool and calm. Unlike the unfortunate beekeeper/chef who was jumping around and swatting bees. Had to be sooo embarrassing for the executive chef. Just another day in the public spotlight for … Continue reading

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