Monkey Chains of Bees and Insect Bivouacking

[aggienaut]

   Special thanks to furzicle for her assistance as videographer. She braved the bees and survived mostly unscathed -- a bee pooped on her ipad. The below is the original impromptu video I made with my phone that kind of gave me the idea, but it has a much better monkey chain formation.

   "In the end, only kindness matters," this birdhouse when I first met it back in January, before I relocated it to my yard.

   And read more about the fascinating rafting behavior of red fire ants!

   Here's someone else's video of an impressive ant bridge across water. Please ignore the terrible music.

   The book I'm reading is this fascinating anthology (ant-thology???) about insects.

   And finally, here I get eaten by army ants in Nigeria. [fade to image of skeleton being crawled over by ants]

Comments

[fimbrethil.livejournal.com]

The things you get to do fill me with envy and awe. After my work day is done at the Botanical Garden, I walk over to our bee garden and just watch the girls come and go. They have been clustering near the entrance lately. Urde, our beekeeper, has some concerns that one of our hives may be readying to swarm. She had seen some queen cells inside but then none of them hatched.

[kagomeshuko.livejournal.com]

Bees are interesting, but for me, this, is NO THANKS!!!

Ants are also interesting! I had read somebody's user info wrong and thought it said, "Myrmecology" when it said "Mycology."

Did you know that ants fall over on their right sides when they are drunk?

I would like to know who pays for those studies, but it is interesting to know.

[mothermelete.livejournal.com]

Oy! Not something I could ever do... but bees are fascinating and I appreciate them, just preferably from afar.

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Interesting video! For some reason I am unduly amused that bees live in a birdhouse... maybe it's the whole "birds and the bees" thing? :)

[mezzominty.livejournal.com]

Excellent take on the topic! We'll done.

[penpusher.livejournal.com]

The Hive mind is strong!

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

That was a neat video! I'm struck particularly by how slow and gentle your motions were with the bees - it makes sense, but it hadn't really occurred to me that that's part of what's involved in having a good relationship with those particular insects, until I saw you doing it.

I've had first-hand experience with fire ants balling up in water and forming rafts. I grew up in Florida, right on a river, and went walking during a flood one time. That... was not my smartest move. One of those fire and balls and I collided (in my defense, I tried to get out of the way! But there were currents and I was clumsy) and ohhhhhh ouch.

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

I kept waiting for the bees to sting you-- as gentle as you were, pushing them in the slightest sometimes makes them panic. I've had too many bees down the front of my biking jersey to think otherwise. ;)

[eternal-ot.livejournal.com]

Whoa! you are quite a daredevil...Amazing feat that!! I was waiting with baited breath there...Awesome video!!

[hosticle-fifer.livejournal.com]

Bees poop? I mean I guess everything poops, but when you think of the average size of a bee...would you even notice? ;)