h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Excellent article mate. Totally fed-up of the sensationalism about feisty (as I call them) bees. Brilliant chapter on them in Joanne Lauck's book 'The Voice of the Infinate in the Small'.
Personally I have a link with bees, especially bumble bees, I spend a lot of time in the summer rescuing them from pathways!

Thanks. 'Feisty' is a good name. Killing is only a sideline, after all. Why do so many bumble bees need rescuing from pathways?

They need rescueing, cause they get stuck in the shade and just can't get going again, till put in the sun to warm up! I hate seeing squashed bees, from people who can't be bothered to see where they are walking.

That's interesting. I've seen butterflies stranded by low temperures, but I'll have to keep a look out for bumblebees.

Where I work there are a lot of slugs and snails, which slide around on the pathways in the early morning. I try to make a point of watching where I step, because it is distressing to squash them, even though they are a scourge to my hosta.

Its great to find someone else who cares about the smaller creatures. Where I live we have a small river and a tiny bit of woodland along the path into Croydon. I am amazed at the amount of wildlife I have seen in that small area. Especially as I used to live in Plymouth near Dartmoor. Croydon is a suburb of London, and yet I saw my first Kingfisher here! I regularly find crickets and lacewings on my ceiling, which as I have no garden, and live in a tiny 2nd floor flat, is fantastic. Its like they don't want me to be without nature close to me. I guess that is anthropomorphising, but it works for me!
Now though, we have no more hedgehogs around, but many more foxes. I wish we could have both in the area.
What sort of area do you live in, and what creatures share your space?

It bothers me to see people treat tiny things, including plants, like stage dressing. The way I look at life, we're all products of the same process; we just happen to take a different form.

It's astonishing how successful some animals are at making themselves at home in such close company to people. I live in Brantford, a city in Southern Ontario which straddles the Grand River (A210565). Although suburban sprawl is taking up more and more land to the east of us, we are still in a predominantly agricultural area, with whitetail deer, coyotes, and the occasional sighting of wolves. The deer sometimes stray into the fringes of town, especially into areas close to the river. In the city we see foxes, raccoons, skunks, and more squirrels than you can shake a stick at. My wife feeds squirrels and chipmunks in the back garden; they can be very demanding. Possums are becoming more common as they extend their range northwards. They are nocturnal and quite reclusive; so it is not that often that you catch a glimpse of a live one. Beavers also seem to be making a comeback in the area. It's still quite rare to spot one, but the damage they do to trees is unmistakable.

Hi John

it sounds great, I can see deer if I go to our local forest, but wolves and possums, have to go to the zoo for that. Have you ever seen a Praying Mantis in the wild? - that is one of my ambitions, they are amazing creatures.

Yep. The ones we have around here are light green and about as big as a grasshopper... a little bigger, perhaps. Once in a while you come across larger, brown ones. I don't know if they are a different species or not. They are a little less than three inches or so in length. We do have insects called cicadas, which seem to spend most of their adult lives in the tree tops, and are rarely seen. They produce a shrill whistling sound in the heat of Summer, hence the name 'heat singers'.

European bees die if they sting once, but do the 'killer bees' do the same?
Also, I hope you don't try to save wasps from your pathways too - they have no reason for being here other than to be really, really annoying!!! And the best thing to do with slugs and snails is to feed them lots of salt I hate the sound of them underfoot.

As far as I know, there's nothing much between European honey bees and the so-called killer bees, which are basically just enhanced European bees. The only significant difference is attitude.

Wasps are a nuissance here too, especially at the end of the summer. But they generally don't hurt you unless you make them mad by trying to swat them, or if you inadvertently disturb their nest; and then they're usually not as unrelenting as angry bees, in my experience... even the unmodified non-killer kind.

I hate stepping on snails too. They're fascinating things to watch, though. The most common snails I come across have a cream coloured swirl on their shells. We get big slugs, sometimes a good 3" long. I try not to squash them if I can help it.

JTG

Consider this - if you had a great big giant rampage into your town and loot all the supermarkets, vegetable gardens and demolish your home, would YOU be irate . Add to this a scant concern as to the damage and death caused in the nursery where babies incubate happily, and pumping your underground with choking smoke to "calm" the residents. I'd be and in a killing mood myself, so why blame the bees!

I live in Africa and these 'feisty' bees are the only ones I know. We treat them with respect, give them a wide berth and let them get on with their life. My father was almost killed by a swarm of bees when inspecting a school building under construction - they had decided that the roof space offered a perfect place to build a hive and he stuck his head through the ceiling trapdoor to trace the strange humming sounds.

I once had a swarm take up residence in my son's bedside table . Clad in many layers of clothing with the flynet borrowed from my wife's tea table safely tucked into my collar and a thick felt hat (a souvenir from Bavaria) on my head I carefully picked up the bedside table and carried it outdoors onto the lawn. With deft firm movements, I shook the swarm into a large cardboard box made available for the purpose. A phonecall later to a bee-farm nearby and a contibution for the petrol-cost, I no longer had a bee problem. Regrettably, I had to Fumitab the stragglers. Another swarm set up house in my house's cavity walls - those went the same way as I couldn't extract them without demolishing the wall. I now seal all bee-sized holes anywhere that lead to weather-proof cavities with polyurethane foam and acrylic sealer. No more problems!
Be kind to bees - I love honey!

That's good advice. I hope my Entry didn't seem to suggest an anti-bee crusade; that certainly wasn't what I had in mind when I wrote it. It makes me mad (), too, when people start making a fuss about bees and wasps. Live and let live, I say.

What 'killer bees' need is a good publicist and a name that is no more inflamatory than... well, a bee sting.

From an African perspective, all this fuss about Africanized bees really must seem absurd.

JTG

There is nothing like being close to nature in her raw beauty to REALLY question the value of so-called "civilisation". The further mankind gets from their sources of food, water and refuse disposal, the less it means to them other than a subject for complaint at the dinner table.

If someone complains about the cost of meat, have them raise and slaughter the animal themselves - then they will pay the full price!
If we don't like a land-fill site down the road, try disposing of all our waste materials inside our own yards for a change! Reduce, re-use, Recycle, compost and plant your own food.
Go Gardeners, GO!

You're right, of course. I often get the sense that the faceless multitude of our species are not alive as much as subscribed to life. It's all too easy to fall into the routine of writing cheques and demanding service, until you're only involved in your own life to the extent of paying for it, everything else being predigested and explained.

That's why I don't chase the bees and wasps away; it's good for people to get stung once in a while, just to remind them of the here and now.

JTG

We are currently being assaulted by the latest version of the 'Survivor' series. A dozen Americans camping out in east Africa and they are almost starving. Armed with indigineous tribal spears, wild game, edible plants and roots all around them and they are suffering. Surviving on pan fried corn-cakes as supplied by the organisers??!! OK so you dont hunt down a gazelle the first time, and maybe yoú'll come across a lazying lion if you are not looking, but maybe ever third, fourth or even fifth day you will 'eat big' when you get a zebra or gnu! Instead they are drooling at the 'challenges' when face with a cheeseburger as reward for hours of toil in the sun!
When Africa was home only to the African, the people got everything they needed off the land. Now the photographers shoot game and the cattle is exported to the EU to earn Euro's so that Africans can import BMW and Mercedes Benz cars. And at home? The kids have bulging bellies (malnutrition from eating only their corn porridge) and the cattle left behind have no meat on their ribs.

Ironically, the maize producer price in SA has doubled this season. Reason? Well, Zimbabwe has none after "Robber Mug-Abe" took away the food producer's farms, so the world steps in to buy SA maize in US Dollars. Why sell maize in devaluing local currency when you can earn two,three and four times as much exporting it!

It's a mixed up world alright. I don't care for 'Survivor' or programs that depict nature as exotic gym equipment. It annoys me to watch these manic middle management nuts pitting themselves against this, that, and the other environment, tearing up the earth with their expensive bicycles. Programs like that would be more entertaining if the environment was allowed to be as lethal as the producers like to portray it. I often wonder how many of the contestants would survive a week in an inner city ghetto.

JTG

JTG, now there's an environment to survive in! If they manage in the US, we'll have them do the SA advanced course in Alexandra or Soweto, Johannesburg or even Mannenburg, Cape Town.

Keep on rescuing bumble-bees!

and good health to His Holiness, the Dalai Lama and all good people who love the Earth.

Cheers, WR.

The news from India is encouraging. It seems HH has had a very nasty tummy bug, in addition to being exhausted. But He is said to be recovering nicely and will be released from hospital once His course of antibiotics is completed.

JTG