Man’s love-hate relationship with bees

Press, 26 February 1977, Page 13

Man’s love-hate relationship with bees

Contributed by

R. ANTHONY SAVILL

on behalf of ’he

Canterbury Museum.

Last summer in Great Britain a 28-year-old computer mathematician died within an hour of saying he had been stung by a wasp.

The post-mortem examination, however, revealed heart failure, allied to bronchial asthma.

This man had a phobia about insects, and the sheer terror at the mistaken belief he had been stung by a wasp upset the action of his heart. He was literally frightened to death. Occurrences like this are rare but phobias about animals such as bees and wasps are quite common.

Fortunately psychiatrists can treat most of these phobias by behaviour therapy. This involves gradual exposure to the situations that cause anxiety and fear; the person slowly realises that his intense fear of these insects is unnecessary.

Contrary to popular belief, fear of bees and wasps is not born in us. Instead it is instilled in us at an early age, either via the people around us or the hard way — by actually being stung.

with bees on the hands or the face or other parts of the body gives positive pleasure. This liking for contact with bees finds its extreme expression in wearing what is known as a “bee beard” (see illustration).

The technique involves attaching a small cage containing a Queen bee under the chin. The rest of the bees from the hive cluster around her, eventually covering the face. Some people, however, have good reason to be cautious about bee and wasp stings. In the previous article in this series, the effects of stings and their treatment in normal cases were discussed. About two per cent of the population, however, develop an allergy to stings. Although this may become apparent at any age it usually does so before 20 and ’ the majority of people sensitive to insects have a personal or family history of other types of allergy. The symptons of such an allergy are usually severe swelling at the site of the sting and often a body rash. With subsequent stings the severity of the symptoms increases, and abdominal pains with difficulty in breathing may be experienced together with heart palpitations and headaches.

As a result fear of bees and wasps is widespread and out of all proportion to the pain acually inflicted by a sting which many people have, in fact, never experienced. At the opposite end of the spectrum are those people who show a devotion to bees so strong that “love” is the only word for it. Physical contact

People showing symptoms of this sort should always consult a doctor. Those who - are severely

allergic to stings may consider a course of desensitisation injections. This can be undertaken by the family doctor, and although tedious (involving about 20 injections of diluted bee or wasp venom) is about 90 per cent effective. Bee venom can also actually have great medical value. Injections of bee venom have for several decades been used in the treatment of rheumatic deseases with remarkable success As with snakes, spiders and other poisonous animals, bees are “milked ' of their venom. This is done by placing at the entrance to the hive a landing strip of nylon gauze through which a small pulsating electric current is passed. Alighting bees receive a mild electric shock and immediately sting into the gauze. As the current momentarily pulses off the bee removes its sting from the gauze and crawls unharmed into the hive. At least 20 hives must be milked to obtain 1 gram of venom — the equivalent of 10,000 bee stings.

But man's use of bees and their products has not always been peaceful. Dating back to even biblical times, history records beehives being hurled at the enemy in times of war.

More recently in the Vietnam war beehive booby traps were employed against the enemy in guerrilla warfare.