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Elephants are scared around bees

nautil.us

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Re: Elephants are scared around bees

#71

Post by irrational »

cryptonector wrote: post #46
WXLCKNO wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bees live 30-60 days it seems. Queens live up to 5 years but 2-3 on average, just spawning new ephemeral pods to do work.

It depends. Winter worker bees live several months. Summer worker bees live only a few weeks. (I'm referring to honeybees here, not other types of bees.) Winter bees have to live longer because the colony has to "hibernate" through the cold winter months, doing nothing but keeping warm, then in the spring it needs enough bees to reboot the cycle. On the other hand winter bees don't have to forage. Summer bees live le…

What about bees in places like San Diego where it is mild year round? Do they have permanent spring bees?

Re: Elephants are scared around bees

#72

Post by cryptonector »

irrational wrote: post #71
cryptonector wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends. Winter worker bees live several months. Summer worker bees live only a few weeks. (I'm referring to honeybees here, not other types of bees.) Winter bees have to live longer because the colony has to "hibernate" through the cold winter months, doing nothing but keeping warm, then in the spring it needs enough bees to reboot the cycle. On the other hand winter bees don't have to forage. Summer bees live le…

What about bees in places like San Diego where it is mild year round? Do they have permanent spring bees?

It depends as much on weather as on forage availability. If there's no nectar flow during the winter, then they'll just not spend so much effort on foraging, maybe? I'm not sure. Where I am it's hot much of the year, but winters are not a walk in the park for the bees, so they definitely hibernate. (They don't sleep all winter, just they don't go out on cold days, but since it's Texas there are sufficiently warm winter days they will go out on those days, mainly to poop.)

Re: Elephants are scared around bees

#73

Post by m4jor »

alehlopeh wrote: post #18

There’s a brief mention of a study that found that “merely playing recordings of angry bees through speakers in the field was enough to cause the elephants to flee” but it seems like that would be a far cheaper solution than putting actual beehives all over the border.

After months/years of hearing bees but never getting stung or one fly up their noses, p sure the elephants would call the bluff and learn its fake.

Re: Elephants are scared around bees

#74

Post by aziaziazi »

nicolas_t wrote: post #63
bitwize wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And larvae. A honey badger will go right into a house of bees to get some larvae. How disgusting is that?! It eats larvae!

my grandfather who happily let his cheese age on the countertop until larvae appeared because it improved the taste would not be shocked at all by that.

Is it a personal habit or a local speciality? If the later, any name/recipe will be appreciated.

Re: Elephants are scared around bees

#75

Post by phonon »

aziaziazi wrote: post #74
nicolas_t wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my grandfather who happily let his cheese age on the countertop until larvae appeared because it improved the taste would not be shocked at all by that.

Is it a personal habit or a local speciality? If the later, any name/recipe will be appreciated.

Mimolette?

Re: Elephants are scared around bees

#77

Post by plonk »

ourmandave wrote: post #3

But when bees swarm—and African bees swarm aggressively—hundreds of bees might sting an elephant in its most sensitive areas, like the trunk, the mouth, and eyes. It would be nice if they could form a mutual relationship with honey badgers that don't care how many times they're stung. Except therein lies the problem, honey badgers don't care about anything.

Do they not feel the sting or are they immune to the venom?

Re: Elephants are scared around bees

#78

Post by plonk »

bitwize wrote: post #25
amelius wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When being attacked by an elephant, would it help to make bee noises? And is there a similar trick for dogs?

Elephants, and other savannah wildlife, apparently fear humans more than any other predator, so... make human noises?

The elephant's reaction to fear of humans might not be what you expected though? Do they flee humans more often than they charge?

Re: Elephants are scared around bees

#79

Post by kjs3 »

t-3 wrote: post #47
eterevsky wrote: post #23

My cats have been bitten by various insects more than once and are still not at all "scaredy" around them.

My cat has had close calls with various mammals but is never afraid of them. Buzzed by a bumblebee or fly? He won't go outside the rest of the day. Screeched at by flocking birds? Hiding under the table, inside. He likes to eat ants, though.

They have a sour/lemony taste. Maybe he likes that. Don't ask me how I know.

Re: Elephants are scared around bees

#80

Post by nicolas_t »

aziaziazi wrote: post #74
nicolas_t wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my grandfather who happily let his cheese age on the countertop until larvae appeared because it improved the taste would not be shocked at all by that.

Is it a personal habit or a local speciality? If the later, any name/recipe will be appreciated.

The cheese itself was a camembert. It doesn't seem to be strictly a personal habit since others from my grandfather's generation (born in 1920s) in the village (small village in Picardie) did the same according to my mother. I've also seen it as a child when I came to visit. The larvae (asticots) look similar to photos of Casgiu merzu from Corsica

I never tried it though. Even though I'm typically open to trying new things and really liked Escamoles in mexico, this was beyond what I could stand to try.

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