sting like a bee...?

until yesterday, i, at age 23, had never been stung by a bee.  apparently my boyfriend thought this was ridiculous because 'every kid gets stung by a bee or a wasp at some point' but yeah, not me.  it probably had something to do with the fact that my parents thought it wasn't proper for girls to play outside...or something. 

anyway, my boyfriend just 'happened' to find a honey bee on the steps to our apartment and thought it was a good time to find out if i'm allergic.  he had the bee in a 7eleven bag, put said bag on my leg, and apparently squeezed the poor bee's head until she stung me.  fortunately i'm not allergic to bee stings!!  unfortunately the bee still had to die...

this is the bee that died for me-sorry for the fuzzyish photo.  i've always liked honey bees, well i like most social insects, but it always made me sad that their ultimate defense, their sting, caused them to die.  after the bee stings, when it moves away the sting is left behind along with a trail of bee guts.  of course that's what alerts other bees to the potential threat but still...poor bees. 

speaking of social insects, i think bees and ants are my fav (but honestly who likes wasps and termites anyway??).  it's always fun watching an ant colony at work; each little ant toiling away endlessly in a long line to carry food or other supplies back to the nest.  it's pretty amazing how much weight those things can carry.  i once watched an ant trying to pull a piece of chip that was too heavy and when it's mandibles slipped it ended up slingshot-ing itself back like 3 inches.  it was pretty comical...

yeah i do weird things in my free time... 


have you ever been stung by a bee or wasp?  are you worried you might be allergic?