# Stung in the mouth!! help!!



## agent A (Aug 14, 2012)

hey all, i fed my female s. californica some bees today

she ate one then grabbed another

however as she ate it, she nosedived straight into the stinger and i think she got stung right in the mouth!

she is just standing, kinda stunned, and can't seem to move her mouthparts and the bee is biting her claw

wat should i do???


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## Paradoxica (Aug 14, 2012)

Avenge Her!!!!!!


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## agent A (Aug 14, 2012)

Paradoxica said:


> Avenge Her!!!!!!


she's doin better now she's ripping the bee apart


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## sueb4653 (Aug 14, 2012)

good bet she has a sore mouth though


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## Mime454 (Aug 14, 2012)

My mantids get stung a lot and ir doesn't seem to affect them much.


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## Rick (Aug 14, 2012)

Hopefully not honey bees!


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## agent A (Aug 14, 2012)

Rick said:


> Hopefully not honey bees!


no it was a bumblebee

she ate it and seems ok

i think she'll be fine, and if i'm shipping her to u tomorrow (which i hope to do) she wont eat for a few days so she needed to eat up lol


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## patrickfraser (Aug 14, 2012)

I hope she's ok.


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## Sneaky123 (Aug 14, 2012)

Im sure theyve adapted to that at this point.

I just dont like the idea of killing bees. Has anyone noticed that the amount of fruit being produced on certain plants is dropping in a ratio with the amount of flowers the plant has? I know friends who have noticed this too, at least in bakersfield. Coincidentally with a decline in bees, noticeable with pure observation.

A little off-topic there. But just had to bring it up.


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## agent A (Aug 14, 2012)

Sneaky123 said:


> Im sure theyve adapted to that at this point.
> 
> I just dont like the idea of killing bees. Has anyone noticed that the amount of fruit being produced on certain plants is dropping in a ratio with the amount of flowers the plant has? I know friends who have noticed this too, at least in bakersfield. Coincidentally with a decline in bees, noticeable with pure observation.
> 
> A little off-topic there. But just had to bring it up.


i think it's odd how if u spray a bee with wd-40 (a silicone lubricant) it curls up and turns black :huh:


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## Krissim Klaw (Aug 14, 2012)

Sneaky123 said:


> Im sure theyve adapted to that at this point.
> 
> I just dont like the idea of killing bees. Has anyone noticed that the amount of fruit being produced on certain plants is dropping in a ratio with the amount of flowers the plant has? I know friends who have noticed this too, at least in bakersfield. Coincidentally with a decline in bees, noticeable with pure observation.
> 
> A little off-topic there. But just had to bring it up.


Nope, in fact my fruit trees seem to produce too much fruit. I have a hard time clearing it off fast enough so I don't end up with a rotting mess. My baby tree can barely even keep its limbs up it gets so heavy with fruit. I also still seem to see a thriving population of wild honey bees each season too. Perhaps some of it is location.


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## Mime454 (Aug 14, 2012)

Sneaky123 said:


> Im sure theyve adapted to that at this point.
> 
> I just dont like the idea of killing bees. Has anyone noticed that the amount of fruit being produced on certain plants is dropping in a ratio with the amount of flowers the plant has? I know friends who have noticed this too, at least in bakersfield. Coincidentally with a decline in bees, noticeable with pure observation.
> 
> A little off-topic there. But just had to bring it up.


I think that the problem is the queen taking the colony and getting lost. Killing a few bees won't hurt anything.


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## agent A (Aug 14, 2012)

Mime454 said:


> I think that the problem is the queen taking the colony and getting lost. Killing a few bees won't hurt anything.


funny story, i found 4 worker bees building a nest so i thought one was a queen

i brought it to skewl to give to my latin teacher and he said (not only dont bring bees to skewl because someone in class was allergic) that the workers mustve gotten lost and their last command was to build so that's why they built


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## Mirk (Aug 14, 2012)

I am pretty certain I kill more honey bees on my daily commute then any mantis would eat any given day, not to mention all the other natural predators. unless you are raiding hives for your entire mantis stock, then I really wouldn't think too hard on it.

.

Besides if you are really worried about bee populations , you could stop using your cell phones(http://scientopia.org/blogs/scicurious/2011/05/25/are-cell-phones-killing-the-bees/)

I dunno my roommate was giving me guf about feeding honey bees to my idolos when others flyers became less avail. So it has become kind of a pet-peeve of mine, as a little common sense will tell you that the 2-3 bees you may feed off a day just seem so insignificant in the big picture.

In my world, I try not to use feeders that have more potential to hurt my mantis, but when push comes to shove sometimes it's better then a starved to death mantis.


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## Mime454 (Aug 14, 2012)

I saw on Vanishing of the Bees that the cell phone link had very little evidence to support it. Neonictotinoids(not sure of spelling) seems to be where most scientists are currently placing the blame.


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## fleurdejoo (Aug 14, 2012)

Well...I blame Mirk.


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## Mvalenz (Aug 14, 2012)

How do you catch a bee with out getting stung?


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## Mime454 (Aug 14, 2012)

Mvalenz said:


> How do you catch a bee with out getting stung?


Deli cups.


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## aNisip (Aug 15, 2012)

There is a honeybee hive in my house (in the roof/siding) and it does no harm, so it's staying...but an africanized honey bee hive is just around the block that I harvest workers out of at night for the mantids...invasive species are ruining south FL


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## Saebjorn9 (Aug 15, 2012)

Youtube "A Plea for Bees" or something like that it's a TEDTalks on what is happening to the bee population and how it's on the decline. It's pretty sad, bees are so important. I never feed my mantises bees just because of how beneficial they are. Also, bumble bees are pretty cute.


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## sinensispsyched (Aug 15, 2012)

I have nothing against honey bees, since they don't hurt me, my family, or the siding. I only have problems with carpenter bees, those big, fluffy bees that act like they're drunk. Besides the fact that their drunkedness sets a bad example for the next generation (my 6 year old brother tried a sip of Bud Light yesterday in honor of bees,) they make holes in the house. For the last few months, I have participated on slingshotforum.net to try and learn how to shoot these bastards. Soon I'll just have to start feeding them off. :devil:


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## Sneaky123 (Aug 15, 2012)

agent A said:


> i think it's odd how if u spray a bee with wd-40 (a silicone lubricant) it curls up and turns black :huh:


Lol have u ever seen those little beetles that pop if u burn them with a magnifying glass?



Krissim Klaw said:


> Nope, in fact my fruit trees seem to produce too much fruit. I have a hard time clearing it off fast enough so I don't end up with a rotting mess. My baby tree can barely even keep its limbs up it gets so heavy with fruit. I also still seem to see a thriving population of wild honey bees each season too. Perhaps some of it is location.


Its mostly plants such as tomatoes and the like. Fruit treees dont seem to have been affected in this area.



Mirk said:


> I am pretty certain I kill more honey bees on my daily commute then any mantis would eat any given day, not to mention all the other natural predators. unless you are raiding hives for your entire mantis stock, then I really wouldn't think too hard on it.
> 
> .
> 
> ...


 Bees being eaten by mantids in the wild happens naturally, so its balanced and really does no harm. I even fed them to my mantids once in awhile, but it just makes me feel a little guilty when i do.The honeybee population here is definitely going down as far as i can tell; however, those carpenter bees are here to stay -.- stupid carpenter bees...


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## rs4guy (Aug 15, 2012)

Rick said:


> Hopefully not honey bees!


Why not honey bees? I use them often...


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## Mime454 (Aug 15, 2012)

rs4guy said:


> Why not honey bees? I use them often...


You monster!!! Think of the children!


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## mantid_mike (Aug 15, 2012)

i'm glad your mantis taught that bee a lesson.


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## rs4guy (Aug 15, 2012)

Actually a few bees a day are easily replaced by the hive, so that is wrong. We all know bees are essential to pollenization of plants. Do you think a wild mantis would refrain from eating a bee? NO! It's nature. Urban sprawl, pollution, overpopulation, these are what's making the honey bee slowly dissapear.


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## Mime454 (Aug 15, 2012)

rs4guy said:


> Actually a few bees a day are easily replaced by the hive, so that is wrong. We all know bees are essential to pollenization of plants. Do you think a wild mantis would refrain from eating a bee? NO! It's nature. Urban sprawl, pollution, overpopulation, these are what's making the honey bee slowly dissapear.


Yes, that was mainly sarcasm, and I said something similar earlier in the thread. The problem is CCD, not a few hobbyists catching bees for their mantids.


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## Mvalenz (Aug 15, 2012)

What about mud wasps. Will they hurt my mantids?


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## selkielass (Oct 16, 2012)

I often have mantises hanging around my hives and helping themselves to easy meals- I don't begrudge them the few they take, and when I bring a mantis home I don't feed it bees from my back yard hive. (Drones and wor

kers with deformed wings mostly.)

My current ' guest' caught out back has started having problems- her grappling arms seem to be paralyzed- she can't seem to extend the forearm or finger joints, tho the joints to her thorax move fine.

No interest in bees or crickets, tho I did get her to take honey.

She's moving real slow. Could this be pre shed or just old age?


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## Mime454 (Oct 16, 2012)

selkielass said:


> I often have mantises hanging around my hives and helping themselves to easy meals- I don't begrudge them the few they take, and when I bring a mantis home I don't feed it bees from my back yard hive. (Drones and wor
> 
> kers with deformed wings mostly.)
> 
> ...


I doubt that any wild mantids are still shedding this late in the year. Probably old age. They don't survive the winters.


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## selkielass (Oct 16, 2012)

Thanks. Ill just keep her as comfortable as I can. She's been a pleasure to observe.


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## ScienceGirl (Mar 14, 2013)

rs4guy said:


> Actually a few bees a day are easily replaced by the hive, so that is wrong. We all know bees are essential to pollenization of plants. Do you think a wild mantis would refrain from eating a bee? NO! It's nature. Urban sprawl, pollution, overpopulation, these are what's making the honey bee slowly dissapear.


"It's nature"?

Actually, nature would be groups of mantids living in their natural ecosystem. The mantid population would be kept down by natural selection and "survival of the fittest."

"Nature" is not dozens (or hundreds) of mantids contrained in mesh cages within close proximity, feeding on dozens of bee per mantid per day.


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## ScienceGirl (Mar 14, 2013)

Mime454 said:


> Yes, that was mainly sarcasm, and I said something similar earlier in the thread. The problem is CCD, not a few hobbyists catching bees for their mantids.


It is not completely CCD.


Global warming: throws off time of plants flowering. The plants begin to flower when honeybees are still clustering in their hives.
Varroa and Tracheal mites.
Decreasing wild colonies.
Pesticides.
A plea to all of you: Please, please, please *do not *use pesticides, herbicides, etc. on your lawns. :helpsmilie:  (Fertilizers are okay.)


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## Danny. (Mar 14, 2013)

ScienceGirl said:


> "It's nature"?
> 
> Actually, nature would be groups of mantids living in their natural ecosystem. The mantid population would be kept down by natural selection and "survival of the fittest."
> 
> "Nature" is not dozens (or hundreds) of mantids contrained in mesh cages within close proximity.


I think he was referring to native sp.


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## ScienceGirl (Mar 15, 2013)

Danny. said:


> I think he was referring to native sp.


Haha, yeah.  

I'm referring to the decline, with the added factor of honeybees being used as feeders.


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## agent A (Mar 15, 2013)

ScienceGirl said:


> "Nature" is not dozens (or hundreds) of mantids contrained in mesh cages within close proximity.


umm, this topic was started about ONE mantis and a native species at that (stagmomantis californica) &lt;_&lt; 



ScienceGirl said:


> A plea to all of you: Please, please, please *do not *use pesticides, herbicides, etc. on your lawns. :helpsmilie:  (Fertilizers are okay.)


i dont use that on my lawn

just fertilizers and seed B)


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## ladygigi (May 11, 2013)

agent A said:


> hey all, i fed my female s. californica some bees today
> 
> she ate one then grabbed another
> 
> ...


When I was doing some research on what to feed my mantids, (before I knew of this forum BTW), I read that for one, you should avoid feeding bees to your mantids. :no: However, if it is unavoidable for reasons of say lack of other food for example, or it is something that for one reason or another you just seem to want to feed your mantis, then it is important that you remove the stinger before doing so! So that may be a good idea in the future.


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