# Bees please



## PhilinYuma (Feb 1, 2009)

Bees are occasionally mentioned as a food source of opportunity, but for the past month I have been capturing them on a daily basis (though folks from the Frozen North will have to wait until spring, I guess)). I take three medication vials with me and snag them, very easily, from whatever flowers are in bloom. The important thing to remember (actually, two) is to prepare them for feeding as soon as you get them home, because if you leave them in the vial for a few hours, they will probably be dead. I don't even chill them before serving. I just open the feeding port in the enclosure and tip them in. They are a great source of protein for larger mantids (Chinese will often catch them within seconds of introduction) and I have never seen them cause any problem with their stings.

The second thing to remember is to take care to secure the vial when it is occupied and to carry it it in some kind of bag (I use my camera bag). Last week, I saw an available bee just after I had secured one, and in the excitement of the chase slipped the occupied vial into my pocket. I guess that I didn't do a perfect job with the "child proof lid" either, because on the way home I felt a sharp pain in my left thigh and realized what had happened :huh: 

The poor little critter had stung me through the pocket lining and my Fruit of the Looms, and when I got home the sting was in the pocket lining and not me. A little ammonia solution and a quick shot of morphine fixed me up.

Bee: 1 Phil: 0  

Does anyone else use these critters on a regular basis?


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## bassist (Feb 1, 2009)

I used to use bees got good at removing the stinger though they'd die in a few minutes the mantis usually got them before that though stopped using them because I didn't see a lot of them so I used moths and butterflies for a while used to be hundreds of bees around parks now you're lucky to see a couple around here. I remember a few years back in school there was a teacher that was a bee keeper I actually got him to get me a few drones when I was running low on feeder insects lol.


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## Rick (Feb 1, 2009)

Have used them but will not ever trap honeybees again for food. They are in a decline as it is.


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## Katnapper (Feb 1, 2009)

I've never used them. I guess I've never thought about trying to catch them, because I'm afraid they will sting me. I generally give them lots of leeway when they're around. I also saw what I think was a wasp one time attack and kill a Stagmomantis carolina nymph I had in my garden flowerbed. It was really shocking to me as I was sitting in the grass enjoying watching this mantis on one of my flower bushes... and while I was sitting there this wasp came down and suddenly they were grappling in a life and death struggle. I couldn't believe it happened while I was sitting there watching! I really thought the mantis would win, but he didn't. It threw me for a loop, because I didn't realize mantids were at risk from being killed by wasps. I also didn't realize wasps ate other insects, but this one appeared to start eating the mantis after his victory. I was so mad that he killed my poor little friend (who had been a resident of my flower garden that I would check on all of the time, and I enjoyed having) that I took my garden trowel and smashed him in a fit of revenge. Anyway... to answer your question... no, lol.


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## hibiscusmile (Feb 1, 2009)

I don't use bees, but wasps, hornets and such, but I smach their heads now. While feeding a orchid this summer, the yellow jacket grabbed the orchids head and it was an awful ordeal to get it off, it bit her and she was squirming something awful, I actually pulled the body from the head and had to go back after the head. I t wouldnt let her go.


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## revmdn (Feb 1, 2009)

I haven't used them ether do to their population drop, like Rick mentioned.


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## PhilinYuma (Feb 2, 2009)

revmdn said:


> I haven't used them ether do to their population drop, like Rick mentioned.


Yikes! I'd quite forgotten that so many members of this forum live, like you and Rick. in states afflicted with CCD!

Arizona is one of the only three states (the others are Colorado and New Mexico) in the southwest that are still unaffected. If you want to know whether or not your state is afflicted (a good clue is a dirth of honey bees) try http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/pressReleases/CCDMap07FebRev1-.jpg I think that it omits Arkansas though, now listed as affected.

Obviously, the number of bees captured by mantis keepers would not impact on existing losses, but I can certainly understand the emotional motivation of such a course of action. Another good reason to live in Arizona!

[And yes, Mija, it's all your fault. What are you going to send us next, locusts?]

Katt: Like humans and brown bears, wasps are omnivores. We're used to seeing them eating fruit, but they are fierce insectivores. Some eusocial species carry off insects like bees and caterpillars to their nest to feed their young.


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## Katnapper (Feb 2, 2009)

Thanks for the info, Phil.  I also didn't realize bee populations were in decline in many U.S. states... maybe because Illinois is not currently one of them. Good to know though. The link to the map was very helpful.


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## revmdn (Feb 2, 2009)

Wow! I didn't realize it was affecting that many states. I herd about it on NPR.


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## yen_saw (Feb 3, 2009)

Hmmm i was very surprise to see Texas is affected as well. but the data could be misleading because it depends on if the killer bees are considered. The killer bees been known to breed faster, producing far more babies than the local honey bees which is affecting their population. One of the entomologist here told me the African honey bee (killer bee) carries certain mite that is killing the local bees, which is why the number of our local bees are in decline. I still see bees here even as deep as in december and there are more and more pest control here trying to contain the killer bees so my guess is they are gradually replacing the local bees and growing in numbers.


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## Orin (Feb 3, 2009)

PhilinYuma said:


> A little ammonia solution and a quick shot of morphine fixed me up.


Who has shots of morphine sitting around?


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## hibiscusmile (Feb 3, 2009)

Phil does, lets all meet over there :lol:


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## PhilinYuma (Feb 3, 2009)

Don't give up hope yet, Orin! Go to an Army Surplus store and search for an old ('50s) British Army Field Medical kit. The

sulfur ointment will have long dried up, but if you're very, Very, VERY lucky, you might find one of those old glass syringes with the kind of needle that you had to resharpen, and a few vials of morphine.  

If not, you and Hibiscusmile are always welcome in Yuma!


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## Christian (Feb 4, 2009)

I sometimes feed bees and wasps to my _Idolomantis_. Just for a change, as the amount of food I need cannot be warranted with bees alone. I don't remove the stinger, the mantids can handle them (one should make sure the mantid is large enough). I don't care about CCD. It is an issue in Europe also, even if not as harsh as in the US, but the few bees I catch a year don't make any difference.


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## nasty bugger (Feb 4, 2009)

I just think about how many things wouldn't be polllenated if I take a bee, so I abstain. I imagine if I ran into a beligerent bee though, well that's a different story.

If you make it to Yuma, Algodonez is just a quick trip away, and San Luis not much further.

You could stumble back to the US after visiting those places, if that's what ya like, doctors in Mexico can be very accomodating, for some greenbacks. I don't know how thier quality control is.


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## flybycat (Feb 4, 2009)

I wouldn't feed honey bees or spiders to my mantids because I view them as beneficial insects. Then again every organism has some beneficial part to play in their ecosystem unless they're an introduced species, but as Rick and others mentioned honey bees are on the decline.

Marc


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## Dinora (Feb 5, 2009)

Katnapper said:


> I've never used them. I guess I've never thought about trying to catch them, because I'm afraid they will sting me. I generally give them lots of leeway when they're around. I also saw what I think was a wasp one time attack and kill a Stagmomantis carolina nymph I had in my garden flowerbed. It was really shocking to me as I was sitting in the grass enjoying watching this mantis on one of my flower bushes... and while I was sitting there this wasp came down and suddenly they were grappling in a life and death struggle. I couldn't believe it happened while I was sitting there watching! I really thought the mantis would win, but he didn't. It threw me for a loop, because I didn't realize mantids were at risk from being killed by wasps. I also didn't realize wasps ate other insects, but this one appeared to start eating the mantis after his victory. I was so mad that he killed my poor little friend (who had been a resident of my flower garden that I would check on all of the time, and I enjoyed having) that I took my garden trowel and smashed him in a fit of revenge. Anyway... to answer your question... no, lol.


Eeep!  

Mental note: don't piss off Kat!  

I've read in several websites and books that wasps (and sometimes even bees) can fight back and really hurt the mantis so it's not a risk I'm willing to take!

Stupid stinging insects!!! :angry:


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## PhilinYuma (Feb 6, 2009)

Dinora said:


> Eeep!  I've read in several websites and books that wasps (and sometimes even bees) can fight back and really hurt the mantis so it's not a risk I'm willing to take!
> 
> Stupid stinging insects!!! :angry:


Christian makes the important point about using bees for mantids large enough to manage them easily; for me that has been a peacock adult and a couple of Chinese subadults.

A friend of mine (Mija the Merciless Mutilator) captures "HUGE wasps" and removes the stingers before feeding them, but I would almost certainly get myself stung in the process and neither bees nor wasps survive long after a "stingectomy".

"Mental note: don't piss off Kat!  "

At least not when she has a weapon to hand!


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## Katnapper (Feb 6, 2009)

:mellow:  :lol:


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