Bees, Hornets,BarbariansBaseball & Books

[RascalPuff]

Charles Darwin’s VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE (‘On The Origin Of The Species’), recently being read - in the great outdoors - by the record; interrupted by a boldly orbiting hornet (All Creatures Great And Small, The Lord God Made Them All), namely, a yellowjacket. He landed on the face of the open book in my lap and then disembarked and went back into orbiting my coordinates and keeping me in suspense, as they often indulge themselves... He finally landed again on the face of the afore titled and authored book. I closed the book - smartly - upon him (I forget what page). I reopened it and with a burst of air through pursed lips, blasted him off the face of the book, into an approximately three foot long high arc, to land unmoving in the tangle of the trimmed hedges in front of the stairway I had been seated upon when the complacently reconnoitering Stuka arrived to take control of my life. As they have a way of doing.

Dear Mr. Yellowjacket: I respect you. You are one of God’s most mighty and courageous and adventuresome and fierce, raw meat, carrion and bee eating critters on earth. You are magnificent. But. Don’t do it here. Yes. I know who you are. You know that I know who you are. You could ruin my entire week with swollen tissue and sharp pain on any part of my body. Probably get away with it.

If you happened to be tearing chunks out of a hamburger as I pick it up and take a bite out of it, including you. You could, and probably would kill me with stings in my mouth, throat and stomach. Not get away with it, but compensatorily take me with you. Even grizzly bears know this and only them and Orcas and Polar bears are creatures without fear. Even they may find you the exception to their fearless rule. For all this yellowjacket fearing record knows. Yes. You know that everybody knows that about you, Mr. Yellowjacket. Wherever you go. By your distinguished colors, pattern and exoskeleton armor. On sight.

On the other hand. In the case of this two legged bi-ped who knows who you are. You do not know something about this particular type of bipedal mammalian creature. This individual one is of a kind that will terminate you in mid air between his hands - or reach out briskly and crush you with one hand - and take his chances on your ability to inflict a painfully swollen hand for several days. Because: you frighten, and consequently, piss them off. That much. Heaven or hell. Turn. Or burn.

Such a person does not want to be, for example, the batter at the base who is distracted by an ominously orbiting, hovering yellowjacket, commuting back and forth between the batter, say, and the pitcher. Sidling back and fourth just ahead of your bowsprit; maintaining holding pattern while looking you directly in the eyes as they do. Making you wonder what they’re going to do next. Along with, in a case like this, say, 50,000 stadium occupying bystanders and six TV cameras live to 30 million people watching it in their living rooms. None of but two of these - the batter and the pitcher in this case - know why the game seems strangely delayed by the unexplained non pitching of the pitcher and/or the unexplained non stepping - or staying up to the plate by the batter...

No one understands this better than Johnny Yellowjacket. Only yesterday the same nomadic troublemaker caused a fatality accident he smugly flew away from after a panicked driver ran a light and T boned a schoolbus at forty miles an hour. Drivers have been known to leave the road in panic at the intrusion of a hornet in the automobile (Instead of calmly pulling over and letting the little bastard go. Or safely dispatching him). It has come to the attention of this record that hornets enjoy terrifying everything that isn’t another yellowjacket, whether they attack it or not. And still, it is innocent. However savagely so. As people cannot be, when they ape the hornets - or the bygone nomadic pagan conqueror’s - behavior, in the false name of doing what comes ‘naturally’.

A comparison can be made between sedentary - civilized - people and bees (all honey bees are female), and nomadic - savage - people and hornets (all hornets are male).

Conclusion: Civilized people - and even most barbarians - are much more comparable to bees than they are hornets. The Doctrine Of Innate Depravity holds its place only with culturally stricken, hysterical interpretations (Refer, ‘karma mongers’. ‘God’s will’, ‘manifest destiny’, ‘predestination’ , etceteras).

[labelwench]

Yellow Jackets and Hornets, some differences......LW

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_jacket

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornet

Stings

A hornet's sting is painful to humans, but the sting toxicity varies greatly by hornet species. Some deliver just a typical insect sting, while others are among the most venomous known insects.[1] Allergic reactions, fatal in severe cases, can occur; an individual suffering from anaphylactic shock may die unless treated immediately via epinephrine ("adrenaline") injection using a device such as an EpiPen, with prompt followup treatment in a hospital.
European hornet sting in itself is not fatal except sometimes to allergic victims.[1]multiple stings (several hundred) may be fatal due to the amount of venom (similar to wasps and bees).[citation needed]is less toxic than a bee sting.[citation needed]

Non-European hornet sting in itself is not fatal except sometimes to allergic victims.[1]
multiple stings (an entire nest) can be fatal due to highly toxic species-specific additions in the venom.[2]
is more toxic than a wasp or bee sting
from the Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia japonica) is the most venomous known (per sting).[1]

All hornet stings
are an allergen for people with an allergy to wasp venom.
those allergic to wasp venom are not necessarily allergic to bee venom as they contain different chemicals.
contain less volume of venom than a bee sting.[citation needed]
are primarily for killing insect prey.[citation needed]
are more painful than a typical wasp's due to a large amount (5%) of acetylcholine.[3] See Schmidt Sting Pain Index.[4]

As in all stinging wasps, hornets can sting multiple times; they do not die after stinging a human as is typical for a worker honey bee, as a hornet's sting is not barbed (the honey bee stinger has evolved for defending the nest against vertebrates/mammals). They can also bite and sting at the same time.
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Alarm escalation

Hornets, like many social wasps, can mobilize the entire nest to sting in defense, which is highly dangerous to humans. The hornet alarm pheromone is used to raise alarm of nest attack and to identify prey, such as bees.[5] It is not advisable to kill a hornet anywhere near a nest, as the distress signal can trigger the entire nest to attack. Materials that come in contact with pheromone, such as clothes, skin, dead prey, or hornets, must be removed from the vicinity of the hornets nest. Perfumes and other volatile chemicals can be falsely identified as pheromone by the hornets and trigger an attack.
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Prey

Hornets and yellow jackets prey on many insects that are considered to be pests, so they are actually beneficial. They do also prey on bees, but unlike honey bees, hornet and yellow jacket colonies die out every winter.
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Hornets and other Vespidae

European hornet with the remnants of a honey bee.

While taxonomically well-defined, there may be some ambiguity about the differences between hornets and other wasps of the family Vespidae, specifically the yellow jackets, which are members of the same subfamily. Yellow jackets are generally smaller than hornets and are bright yellow and black, whereas hornets may be darker in color - see wasp and bee characteristics.

Another major difference between yellow jackets and hornets is each of their food choices and aggression towards humans. In autumn, yellow jackets may be attracted to human foods and food wastes, increasing potentially aggressive contact between yellow jackets and humans. Hornets, on the other hand, tend to stick to live insects.

Some other large wasps are sometimes referred to as hornets, most notably the bald-faced hornet (Dolichovespula maculata) found in North America. It is set apart by its black and ivory coloration. The name "hornet" is used for this and related species primarily because of their habit of making aerial nests (similar to the true hornets) rather than subterranean nests. Another example is the Australian hornet (Abispa ephippium), which is actually a species of potter wasp.

[austintorn@aol.com]

The good news is that you were kind of reading The Theory of Everything, and so TQ must allow this thread.

The bad news is that the hornet was the first of a brand new species.

[Mikal]

Hi RP…interesting musings about yellow-jackets!

When I was ten, I went to the barn with my friends to play hide and seek—the boy whose family owned the barn did not tell me that he had smashed a yellow-jacket hive in all the piles of hay.

With so many kids mulling about—he pushed me into the hay with all the remnants of the hive. I was stung from head to foot—only saved myself by running a fair distance to jump in the lake and go under the dock so I could keep coming up for air—meanwhile in the run, I was being stung and stung and stung! My father was called, he rolled me in mud and that’s how he took me to hospital because I was so swelled from stingers and bee toxin.

From that experience I must have developed a new respect for bees—its not that I am terrified of them but I have a healthy respect that they have a space I should not intrude into—I have never been stung again and that is in a span of 51 years. They can intrude into my space but I have radar…lol…I know they are coming…

Taking this to life and culture do you suppose that we make the mistake of getting too much in one another’s space—and so much that we actually incite ourselves and one another, into random crisis that becomes very intense and ongoing deep frustration we have to endure through??

Just musing here per your thoughts…

Regards Mikal