Swarm of bees attack kindergartners

[Guile]

NAGOYA -- Five kindergartners and two adults were stung by a swarm of bees while taking a walk on Wednesday morning, police said.

A total of 70 kindergartners from Nisshin, Aichi Prefecture, and adults accompanying them were staying at a public lodge in Nagoya's Midori-ku.

Many of them went out on Wednesday morning to take a walk along a local promenade when a swarm of bees attacked five kindergartners, one instructor and a photographer.

"I called an ambulance because the children came back crying after being stung by the bees," said Takashi Yoshida, director of the lodge. "We went along the promenade and noticed a honeycomb with many bees around it," Yoshida added. "A fisherman was also stung at the same spot on Tuesday."

Local health officials were dispatched to the scene and removed the honeycomb from a tree on the side of the promenade. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Aug. 11, 2004)

[Taro Toporific]

"I called an ambulance because the children came back crying after being stung by the bees," said Takashi Yoshida, director of the lodge. .. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Aug. 11, 2004) http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20040811p2a00m0dm011001c.html

For some odd reason, Japanese are deathly afraid of bees and warps. Ask any Japanese and they will swear that warps stings are lethal (not just for folks with rare allergies). Weird.

Many times in my building I've "escorted" bees and wasps out and have been scolded for "risking my life" hee, hee. More than once I've taken a wasp and made it sting me just to prove that it wasn't deadly, sheesh.

[mikesphat]

http://www.scifi.com/happens/bug_footage.html

i will also set wayward wasps and bees free...

[Taro Toporific]

http://www.scifi.com/happens/bug_footage.html

i will also set wayward wasps and bees free...

Oh the HORROR! Killer ladybugs.

Entomologist Nathan McLaughlin examine the footage
http://www.scifi.com/happens/bugletter.html

These insects appear to be Lady Beetles of the Coccinella Septempunctata variety. Ladybugs are known to aggregate in large numbers in the Fall,when they hibernate, and in the spring when they leave hibernation to reproduce en masse. During both periods, ladybugs can be found in large groups, some aggregate colonies weighing in at hundreds of gallons (estimating about 70-80,000 adults per gallon). Given this occurred in the springtime, it's possible these ladybugs are part of an aggregate colony emerging from hibernation to spawn.
However, I can find no comparative records for such unusual swarming behavior. First, the rate at which they swarm is phenomenal. From the first sighting until the family flees is near twenty seconds, which indicates the insects would have been moving in an unusually dense formation.
Their "organized" behavior is baffling, as evidenced in three places in the video: One, the ladybugs on the back of the hand seem to be following one another in a clockwise rotation....
....The other theory offered is that the insects have been genetically modified, which seems farfetched to me , but as of my first impressions, not entirely out of the question.

[mikesphat]

i remember sitting in a small church as a kid... and hundreds and hundreds of ladybugs invading the building... weird shit...

[GuyJean]

i remember sitting in a small church as a kid... and hundreds and hundreds of ladybugs invading the building.

A pentecostal church?.. Now that's weird shit.

[Kaibutsu]

For some odd reason, Japanese are deathly afraid of bees and warps. Ask any Japanese and they will swear that warps stings are lethal (not just for folks with rare allergies). Weird.

Many times in my building I've "escorted" bees and wasps out and have been scolded for "risking my life" hee, hee. More than once I've taken a wasp and made it sting me just to prove that it wasn't deadly, sheesh.[/quote]

I live in Alabama , and have gotten a few wasp and bee stings. I'm not
deathly afraid of them(though I give wasps and hornets a wide berth) but I do try to avoid them because the stings hurt like a Son-of-a-Bitch.

Ironically, the worst run in I've had with bugs was with ants. I was about 10 or 11 and did a really dumb ass kid thing-tried to drown a ant bed by spraying it with a garden hose. BAD IDEA.I got stung all over and had an allergic reaction. The folks had to take me to the emergency room and I got quite a few epinephrin shots. I came close to dying, and for a few years after that, mom kept an epinephrine shot just in case I got stung again and had another reaction.

[Faded]

I haven't seen much of the Bee/wasp fear, but my J-Lady is deathly afraid of Moths and Butterflies. Squeals like a little child when she sees one. Makes watching old Toho films a true evil pleasure for me , though did put a damper on my butterfly garden.

Strangest thing is, the load of crap she gave me for my freaked reaction to a midnight battle with a 8 inch (width-leg tip to leg tip) spider in an onsen last year. ( thank the gods for bathroom slippers.)