LIONS and OTHER THINGS

THINGS THAT BITE - Bugs and Bees

Things That Bite.
…....................

They have it, teeth, suckers, and pincers, the things they use to bite a person. These things that bite are numerous and belong to the greatest group of living organism – creepy, crawly, things. Well, maybe the second biggest, if we consider germs and the like. Most of them bite, in order to defend themselves and to sustain their being.

Scorpions come in different types, almost like motor cars (or is it women?). There is the long rear end and the short rear end. The large rear end and the small rear end. Thin and thick rear ends. They have roamed the earth for approximately 430 million years and mainly below the 49th degree. There are not many types compared to other creepies, only about 2000 types of scorpions.

Spiders are numerous and there are a lot of types, about 40 000. They are more like people, where you find people, you will find spiders. As a group they are very interesting. They are mostly specialist in each of their groups living in, under and on top of every nook and cranny nature can supply. They catch and eat other things except one. Bagheera kiplingi - this is the only spider that eat greens, they live mainly in the Central Americas including Mexico, Costa Rica and Guatemala. The spider is named after Kipling and his panther character Bagheera in Jungle book. Now, this is my type of spider.

Strictly speaking, spiders are not insects as they have eight legs and to be an insect, that is not the correct number of legs. Spiders surely looks like an insect to me, in fact, they even imitate insects so that they can look more insect-like.

The learned people have a system whereby they know which thing goes where. They do not call individuals, individuals. No, they are referred to as a member of a specie. Normal people will think of a
creepy as squashed, sprayed, or dead in any form and way. The learned think of them as 'specie, genera, families'.
Imagine,
“Dear, do look at this rare and exquisite specie of ...”
SPLAT
“ That does look more interesting, now, be a dear and throw it out.”

Of all of these, a spider bit me once, never saw him do it and never saw the creepy, still, the burning pain and a few days of feeling out of sorts let me know that they can bite and make you quite ill. Spiders have been known to kill people by their poison, tho, not all that many. If a person suspects that they have been bitten by a spider, they should always seek expert help.

Scorpions are notorious, yet most of their bites are accidental. Well, scorpions sting like a bee and the pincers are really used to hold the prey as if a knife and fork. Very civilized eaters are the scorpions. A few scorpions have a poison capable of killing a person and very few kills are attributed to them. One once bit me, fortunately it was not a very poisonous type and it stung and burned a while and hardly caused a swelling and that was that. I was moving rocks in the garden and accidentally picked it up with the rock it was hiding underneath.

Bees, the honey-makers, the cornerstone of pollination of all plants, the most important specie of all creepies. They do cause a few deaths a year and most are accidental as it usually requires a swarm attack to kill a grownup, unless of course you are allergic to bee-stings.

Trying to remove a hive from a hole in the ground was frowned upon by the inhabitants and they promptly attacked me. I sat down on my haunches and folded my arms around my body and the bees covered me. After a while I started getting panicky and screamed to my friends to do something, they got hold of a old wicker cot, set it alight and threw it next to me. I had a choice, getting burnt or run.

Running was the option. We ran away from the swarm or they decided they had enough and let us be.When I removed my clothing it looked as if I had measles, my back and all other places where the bee's sting could touch me, it did make a red spot. I was dressed for the occasion as we did go prepared to take the honey out of the hive, there were a few things we did not consider. It was a hive of African Honey-bees, which have a reputation of reacting aggressively to any interference. The 'smoke device' we made caught alight and we were totally ignorant, being 10 years old. Since then, I have had allergic reactions to bee-stings.