Results: Bees In Strange Places

Caution: Not for those easily grossed out! A Taiwanese woman lived through the ultimate nightmare after going to a local hospital with what she thought was a simple eye infection. Turns out there were tiny bees living under her eyelid – four of them. The young woman was visiting the gravesite of a family member during the country's annual tomb-sweeping festival, when something became stuck in her eye. After attempting to wash the foreign object from her eye, the woman began to feel severe pain, and her eye began to swell. After finally going to the hospital, doctors pulled out 4 tiny (0.3 to 0.4 centimetres) bees, known as sweat bees, which are identified by their bright metallic green or blue colour. Females are generally a bright green, whereas males have a bright-coloured head and yellow-and-black striped abdomen. In keeping with the insect's name, not only are the bees attracted to pollen, they will feed on perspiration and tears, often landing on humans to lick their sweat. The woman is lucky she was wearing contact lenses at the time, and did not rub her eye, causing blindness when the venom was released into her eye. Have you ever had an insect go into your eye?

A 51-year-old man died last Sunday after he was repeatedly stung by a swarm of bees as he attempted to remove a hive from a couch in his backyard. Epigmenio Gonzalez, of Yuma, had gone out to his backyard that evening to remove the beehive from the old couch "when the bees became agitated and stung" him. Do you carefully check patio furniture, barbecues or other outdoor fixtures to make sure they have not become a home for bees or other insects or animals?

Last fall, a Texas couple was stung over 600 times after encountering honeybees outside their home. Vern Roberts got the brunt of the attack while mowing the lawn. He said he was stung on his ears, mouth and down his throat by the bees. His wife, Mary, ran out to help, only to endure several bee stings herself. Do you have a fear of bees stinging you?

Bees, wasps and hornets kill 58 people each year, according to the Washington Post. And the New York Times reports that, among nondomestic animals, bees, wasps and hornets present the most danger — 478 people were killed by the insects between 2008 and 2015. Bees, wasps and hornets are most present during the warmer months, with their nests and hives usually found in trees, under roof eaves and other equipment, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If stung by a bee, wasp or hornet, the CDC recommends washing the site with soap and water and removing the stinger using gauze or scraping the area with your fingernail. However, experts warn against squeezing the stinger or using tweezers to remove it. Have you ever been stung by bees, wasps or hornets?