yeah, the hornet was only a pet for 7 months because after that time the hornet stung the hell out of its caretaker and flew away. the caretaker passed away.

>> ^xxovercastxx:
Thank you, Zonbie, for being a voice of reason in this thread. The European hornet is not aggressive unless defending a nest and the males are not even equipped with a stinger.
Spoco, the European wasp and hornet are not the same animal. The wasp is as you describe: aggressive, frail and interested in human food. The hornet is none of these.
Excluding those with allergies, I don't get the terror people have of bees/wasps/hornets/etc. Being stung is really not a big deal. Certainly no reason to call for a hunt to extinction.


Thanks for the clarification overcast, that does clear things up a bit. I don't dislike bees at all, they leave us alone, it's the aggressiveness of the European wasps I hate, they damn well chase you around (and the kids, I predominantly am trying to keep them from the kids, I'd rather not have a screaming kid on my hands). If they just left us alone I'd be fine with them, but they really are aggressive bastards, and their sting hurts enough that I'd rather them not be around.

Plus they're introduced to this country, so we should be able to eradicate them with impunity... (ok, don't extend that too far else all people in this country other than Aboriginals fit in the same basket)

Thank you, Zonbie, for being a voice of reason in this thread. The European hornet is not aggressive unless defending a nest and the males are not even equipped with a stinger.

Spoco, the European wasp and hornet are not the same animal. The wasp is as you describe: aggressive, frail and interested in human food. The hornet is none of these.

Excluding those with allergies, I don't get the terror people have of bees/wasps/hornets/etc. Being stung is really not a big deal. Certainly no reason to call for a hunt to extinction.

Oh, come on, that was a really, really small one. And I say that cause I've had my share of experience with these, thank you.

When I was 8 or 9, one stung my forehead when I had fallen asleep in the garden of my parents' summer house (that's Eastern Europe, by the way). I couldn't open my eyes or talk coherently for 2 or 3 days after that - my face had inflated twice in volume and was all red. But it went fairly well for me - some people with allergies or a heart condition may die pretty much instantly after they're stung and as far as I know, there's no antidote under those circumstances. On the plus side, though, my body seems to have developed some sort of a natural anti-dote, because if an ordinary wasp or a bee gets me nowadays, I barely feel it. Mosquitoes and horseflies are, unfortunately, a different story.

Anyway, I've met and fought these nasty little buggers afterwards, too. The ones as small as this are easily liquidated by a vacuum, whereas a shot of electricity (even 220V) doesn't really take them down, they just take a jolt and are on their way; it takes several and even than they're just flying funny and seem a bit disorientated.

Here's a nice close-up of one for those of you who want seconds

>> ^WilloTheWisp:
Argh! The "bees sting once" myth! Bees can, and do, sting repeatedly. Only a small number of bee species die upon stinging. Myth myth myth.

Erm... ok, except that you are wrong when it comes to STINGING PEOPLE. From our source of all knowledge that is so very correct that you can't possibly argue against it ( ), wikipedia:

Although it is widely believed that a worker honey bee can sting only once, this is a partial misconception: although the stinger is in fact barbed so that it lodges in the victim's skin, tearing loose from the bee's abdomen and leading to its death in minutes, this only happens if the victim is a mammal (or bird).

So, we, being mammals and all, get stung and the bee dies.

It goes on to say that this is with honey bees only, but you know what? The VAST majority of bees we come across here are HONEY Bees, and the ones I was talking about, as I stated, the imported bees are all honey bees. They imported HONEY bees for their HONEY. We have native bees as well, but I wasn't talking about them.

So it is NOT a 'myth myth myth', for most of us, the vast majority of bees that we come across in day to day life are honey bees, we are mammals, if a honey bee stings a mammal its arse rips off and it dies... end of story, no myth.

Geeze.

i was about to ask if you were american, kulpims. because that whole "don't care what you do (meaning the US) just stop meddling into affairs of other nations. you and your fucking moral high ground..." thing really stung. cuz you know, that would be ignorant, and the main reason i visit this website rather than youtube is for the intelligence of its members, rather than what im sure would be on youtube: "FUCKING PINKO COMMIE FAG! GO SUCK A DICK WHILE I RAPE YOUR MOM!!"

wow, just typing that made me feel dirty. thx again for apologizing. just remember, a lot of us Americans hate bush and the iraq war just as much as you do.

It's not like big Steve here is a little kid. He should know exactly how stupid what he's doing is, especially with an allergy. I'm disappointed he didn't get stung.

BTW, here in the US the bald-faced hornet is more commonly known as a yellowjacket. It's not a true hornet.

When I was 4 or 5 I fell on a log that contained a hive. I was stung about 130 times. Now that was a sight to see... at least that's what I'm told.

Well I have to wade in ("Oh the brilliant pun, truly superb sir." "Why thankyou, I rather liked it what, what") on this.

From a simple standpoint you can indeed agree with hitting the guy who laid into the woman? But there are also reasons why you shouldn't follow by this example.

FOR

* He was indeed far larger, far stronger and didn't really have any physical threat from her. She may have hit him such that it stung a bit, but a guy worth his salt would have either just held her back, or turned away. To start hitting her back shows a complete lack of self control for a guy with so much size. You gain FAR more respect from people if you're a large, strong person by NOT using your strength in these ways. If you HAVE the strength, and choose not to use it in these cases, that shows strength of character. He showed simple minded aggressive behavior.

* In many cases it's one thing that really gets through to boneheads like him 'Hit someone weaker than you, expect to be hit back'

AGAINST

* How are you going to decry him beating the woman when your chosen method of stopping the conflict is to beat him up? Hypocrisy at all?

* By showing a calm, pull them apart, find out the situation, get him to leave mentality, you have risen above the brutal 'beat the shit out of those who you don't like' groupthink.

* Just starting hitting back could have resulted in an all out fight if he had other bonehead friends there who wanted to step in and defend him. Then you have a whole lot of injured people compared to what looks like no-one being seriously injured in the first place.

* And as others have said, based on this one video clip, how can you be sure who is in the 'right' here? Who knows what she did to bring this on, and why she was hitting him to begin with. Sure, it's more than likely he's in the wrong, but you don't know from this video clip alone... you just don't. One of the big issues with youtube videos like this that proliferate around the world is that people get all incensed and overly angry without knowing context... and context can be everything. (The 'don't taze me bro' guy comes to mind as someone who when you know the full story, was not really as sweet and innocent as the clip released would have you believe)


Having said all that, if I, or many guys, saw a woman (especially one you knew) being hit by a guy... it is kinda hard to stop the blood rising.

I'm sorry, I shuddered at the thought of somebody taping and just standing by as their cat gets stung over and over by a deadly scorpion. A downvote from me.

I cant stand all this left wing liberal crap. all these parents are all "oh my baby died what a pointless war" boo hoo. You know what? i can pretty much guarantee you that during their deployment, their parents were bragging about them. and to the fat ass complain about being a janitor because the army didn't give you any life skills? DUH. Combat engineer. Did he honestly think that he would find a job in the civilian world disarming mines? DOUSCH BAG! I'll up vote it only because it was a well stung piece of work. Just like Michael Moore's Pile of lie. Its amazing what the word "context" can do to things...

In Arizona they have Wood Scorpions. I don't know what type of scorpion stung you arvana but wood scorpions are the most poisonous in the world next to emperor scorpions. Not to mention they are the only ones that can lay their tails flat and climb walls, and ceilings. The wound was throbbing with pain for about 2 days and felt like my flesh was burning. There is also a difference between bites and stings. Scorpions will use both to dissuade a potental threat.

I've been stung by a scorpion, and it wasn't too bad -- a bit more painful than a bee sting, but no after-effects. Once the pain was gone in about 10 minutes, that was the end of it. Some may be more painful than others though.

It never occurred to me that a spider might catch and eat a scorpion. That spider is bad-ass!

nice shit eating grin there Ari... fuckhead. people wonder why we get stung when we keep hitting the hornets nest.

I've had the pleasure of getting stung in the hand (it looked so fuzzy and cute and utterly touchable!)by a bristle-covered variant of these in Greece...definitely not a good time.

The dynamic remains solid here dag, and most of the folks that stir the hive, get stung, ignored, or, in some cases, made a project of.....anyone who wants to be banned, need only to ignore a discussion concerning a post in question, or their non-adherence to civil and amicable guidelines. Consider the person who wrote the complaint letter as you would a child who wishes to get their way, or a shining example of the dynamics of living in a non-linear, perception-bound world.