Woman Saves Wingless Bumblebee And Their Friendship Creates Buzz On The Internet
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Last spring Fiona Presly, a library assistant from Inverness, Scottish Highlands came across a surprising phenomenon she would never forget. While taking care of her garden, she spotted a bumblebee queen crawling around. What surprised her the most was that the animal had no wings, as it turns out this honey bee may have suffered from a virus which had caused problems in wing development. The wingless bee had very slim chances of survival but this kind-hearted woman came to the animal’s rescue.
Fiona created an enclosed mini garden for the helpless animal and treated her to some sugar water. Soon enough, the beautiful friendship unfolded between them. Every time Fiona would stop by the garden, her rather exotic pet would emerge to greet her. The bee cuddled with the woman and seemed to light up when Fiona was holding the insect in her arms.
The earth bumblebees have an average lifespan of only 18 weeks, but Presly was taking care of her new friend so well that she outlived her counterparts. Sadly, the friendship couldn’t last forever since the small animal eventually passed away, leaving a beautiful memory to her rescuer.
More info: Facebook
The unlikely friendship was formed between a kind-hearted woman and a wingless bumblebee
While working in her garden the woman encountered the wingless bumblebee
The bumblebee was affected by the virus known to cause problems in wing development
The woman made a beautiful enclosed mini garden for Bee
The bumblebee loved to be held in Fiona’s hands
Presly brought tiny cups of sugar water to her new pet every day
Fiona protected the insect from heavy rain by taking her indoors
The earth bumblebees have an average lifespan of only 18 weeks but this bumblebee managed to surpass it and live much longer
Fiona is probably the first person to have kept a bumblebee as a pet
The bond between Fiona and the bumblebee proves that humans can form connections with insects too
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I feel like bees in general are fairly misunderstood. I’ve handled even honeybees without being stung. As long as you don’t frighten them they are very mellow.
Indeed. I've handled many bees and bumblebees in my life. The only time I got stung was when I accidentally stepped on a bee and it didn't stung me on purpose, her sting just came out of her. I was so sad about the poor thing. Plus, my leg hurt badly.
When I was a little kid, while over at a neighbour's pool, I saw a bee drowning... being a little kid, I tried to pull it out, and it ended up stinging me. (Should have scooped it up with some water) I was more sad that I couldn't save it than I was about being stung. Poor thing must have panicked. Didn't make me hate bees!
The saddest part in bees stings is that they die afterwards :(( That's why I'm always extra careful when around them - they are so very few and so precious!
I found out that bees don’t have to die when they sting people. They can work the stingers out by themselves. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nTVsqc2CCGo
My mums old swimming pool used to have loads of bees floating on top of it, I don't know what attracted them to it but I spent a lot of time scooping them up to save them!
That's always been my experience also, as long as the bee doesn't frighten me i'm usually very mellow as well, I think bees and I have something in common now 🐝 ..UnBeelievable.. 😂
Yeah that's true. I've only been stung twice in my life because I usually just sit still and leave them alone.
This woman is obviously a Disney character in real life. Amazing !
"Beeeee yourself..."
I see what you did there ;)
The story made my day.
As a kid I let bees walk onto my hand from a flower or plant. I'd wander round with them for a bit then pop them back where I found them. I thought they were cute and fluffy. I was always extremely gentle and they didn't seem to mind at all. The only time I got stung was when I did a cartwheel and accidentally crushed one. I was far more upset about hurting the bee (that I hadn't noticed in the grass) than getting stung. I still love bees now and have a garden packed full of lavender plants for them :-)
love seeing this made my day also wish more people would be kind to all the creatures of the earth including humans yes some are more deserving than others like the robbing politicians and dictastors dont think these guys deserve a second chance
First person to have insects as pets??? I bet many small-scale, home beekeepers (myself included) would argue with that! We love our bees, care for them as we do all the other critters we have cared for. I have also kept a colony of milkweed bugs in my house when my daughter was young, so she could learn about insect life-cycles (milkweed bugs, of the order Hemiptera, have a "incomplete" lifecycle) . Which brings me to my second point - HER bond with that bee does NOT prove that people can form bonds with insects. That has been proven, many times over, by many people long before her. Is is one of a long line. But, good for her to adopting that bee!
Each year we have a heartbreaking scenery on a street in The Hague. Bumblebees lying in their hundreds under an avenue of Linden trees. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/science/dead-bumblebees-trees.html
why are they dying?
Because humans killed the variety of blossoming plants. In the heat in the middle of summer those trees are often the only ones providing nectar needed by the insects. So lots of bumblebees fly to these lime trees. When the number of insects increases too much the bumblebees simply starve to death. Thanks to us humans.
to Janine B: is The Hague doing anything to help? There's a few initiative here for people in cities to plant bee-friendly plants....
The bee movie... except 40 years later
Just don't try this with a wasp. Those things are aggressive and seem to sting for the thrill of it.
Wasps exist to contain the bee population and to preserve yeast that helps ferment wine grapes in their digestive tracts over the winter.
Wasps are the Canadian Geese of the insect world.
What's wrong with Canada geese? All the ones I've met have been really sweet!
Wasps are the Americans of the insect world !
Such a precious relationship!!!!
I wonder for how long this bumblebee did live in the end.
Same!
Bee movie!!! Thinking bee! thinking bee!
Respect!
The earth bumblebees? Very sweet story.
did this come from buzzfeed?
Lol good one!
Aaaah this is precious, but my aphiphobia is just noping all over :( I know they don't do anything at all, but I'm for some reason deathly afraid of bees...
Don't worry. I'm afraid of worms to the point where every encounter is borderline traumatic to me.
omg its the Bee movie. oh god SAVE THE HONEY!
COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This would have been awesome "Bee movie"
Eikö se pistä
of course humans can have bonds with insects, i have bonds with spiders, ants (yes ants) dragon flies and a bunch more. This woman is my role model xD
This is a sweet story, reminds me of my 3rd grade teacher who as a child her and her sister would go out to a meadow to pick flowers and one summer there was a bumblebee who would land on her and she could pet it, for the longest time she would go out everyday to pick flowers and pet the bumblebee, no one believed her and her sisters story of their pet bumblebee that would come to be petted like a cat until one day they took their parents to show them & Sure enough the bee came to them to be petted.
One of my best memories of going to London was when I came across a bumblebee in a public garden and freaked out in excitement. They looked like they were wearing fuzzy jumpers compared to our Aussie bees, that my mum (from Ireland) insists are wasps. They aren't just much smaller. I chased it through several garden beds to some workers chagrin as it buzzed around like it was on a honey high. They are GORGEOUS and precious. Take care of them folks, we can't do without our pollinators, no plants no food, no life.
i've saved a bee 2 days ago from the cold.I brought Him (it didn't have a stinger so i assumed it was a male)in and fed him some honey and after it finished eating i've set Ben the bee free
this restored my faith in the human race!
A ball of fur!
SO ducking cute
So great
I unknowingly brought a solid black one of these inside with me while working in the yard. I propped up a pillow and relaxed in front of the TV. When I leaned back, I felt something sticking me. I was in the bushes and thought it was a twig. That happened five times. When I finally sat up, I heard the buzzing of an insect. It was huge. I trapped it and released it back outside. I had 5 minor stings on my back.
I befriended a beetle one year. It would come out from under the cabinets to eat and drink. I also saved a praying many is that had its foot stuck in the seam of the hood of my car...
The bee is really friendly, they don't have sting but they can badly bite!
I love this. Nothing in the world beats love and kindness.
This is a very sad and lonely woman...
Aw! Such a loving person! As someone who is (deathly) afraid of wasps and stinging bees, I have to say it freaked me out a bit at the start. Adorable, though!
This is the most BEAUTIFUL thing I've seen today. My rainy sick day has been made. WOW
So adorable!
awesome :D
I told my bug-loving mom about this and she said she once gave CPR to a dragonfly that fell in her pond. Of course I had questions. She just blew on it until it woke up and there were no chest compressions.
Poor bee...born without wings. Glad she found a friend. Warms my heart!
Oh god. Millenials everywhere will start ripping the wings off bumblebees to have as adorable trending pets. It will become 'a thing".
This is awesome.
I'm crying
This is wonderful👏 the world needs people like this
I love this so, so much!!!
Bumblebee's are awesome. They're just these chubby fluffy little dudes who do their thing. You leave them alone, they leave you along. Hornets and Wasps....totally different and yeah no....just no.
what are you doin' with that bee there, edith?
Wonderful and amazing
Bumble bees live for only 28 days :(
Adorable!! And possible way to make people see that we need these guys on earth!!
She is the bumblebee whisperer. What a wonderfull story !
Reminds me of that Cow and Chicken episode where Cow becomes friends with a fly :D
Delightful... one of the best stories I've read here at Bored Panda. Thanks. ♥
How adorable.
HOLY CRAP IT'S THE BEE MOVIE LOL
oh wait... I'm not very original am i...whoops.
Poor bumblebee, I'm glad it have shelter
The first person to keep bees as pets? What about BEEkeepers?
They tend to keep bees for profit, selling honey and beeswax. Although they can get attached to their bees and care for them, they aren’t really pets.
It didn't even try to sting her so it must have felt safe.
Bumble bees are so sweet. I've saved multiple. I name them too.
THIS IS ADORABLE <3<3
This is just so darling. I can't take how adorable Fiona is with her cute and fuzzy little bumblebee baby! ❤
Best story ever! You're fantastic, Fiona.
Do bumblebees sting? If so, how did she not get stung?
They can sting when threatened. I assume the reason she didn't get stung was that the bee did not feel threatened or did not have a stinger - only the workers and the queen does, and according to the above it was a queen? But for example tarantulas can be kept as pets without biting.
Bumblebees are very relaxed insects. In summer I often hold those fluffy little guys in my hands just because I like them so much. They often climb on your hand when offered. When it's really hot you often get to find exhausted bumblebees on the streets. I always pick them up and carry them to my garden and I never got stung. They are really cute little guys.
They can sting (and do so if they need to defend their nest), but their venom is fairly weak. I would assume it just didn't feel threatened.
As charming a story this is, but surely if its a virus that caused this then the longer the bee was alive the more chance of passing it onto other bees?
🐝❤️
❤️🐝
Coming to Disney in 2020....
I know Dreamworks made Bee Movie (a great underrated film), but Disney should do something with this, it's almost a Finding Nemo style character...
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
I was 12 years old and shooting basketball alone in my backyard. For no reason a bee that I never saw came up behind me and stung me on the center of my back. I went into anaphylactic shock and nearly died. I have immediately attacked and killed any bee I see from that day forward. I wish this one had died as well.
I feel like bees in general are fairly misunderstood. I’ve handled even honeybees without being stung. As long as you don’t frighten them they are very mellow.
Indeed. I've handled many bees and bumblebees in my life. The only time I got stung was when I accidentally stepped on a bee and it didn't stung me on purpose, her sting just came out of her. I was so sad about the poor thing. Plus, my leg hurt badly.
When I was a little kid, while over at a neighbour's pool, I saw a bee drowning... being a little kid, I tried to pull it out, and it ended up stinging me. (Should have scooped it up with some water) I was more sad that I couldn't save it than I was about being stung. Poor thing must have panicked. Didn't make me hate bees!
The saddest part in bees stings is that they die afterwards :(( That's why I'm always extra careful when around them - they are so very few and so precious!
I found out that bees don’t have to die when they sting people. They can work the stingers out by themselves. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nTVsqc2CCGo
My mums old swimming pool used to have loads of bees floating on top of it, I don't know what attracted them to it but I spent a lot of time scooping them up to save them!
That's always been my experience also, as long as the bee doesn't frighten me i'm usually very mellow as well, I think bees and I have something in common now 🐝 ..UnBeelievable.. 😂
Yeah that's true. I've only been stung twice in my life because I usually just sit still and leave them alone.
This woman is obviously a Disney character in real life. Amazing !
"Beeeee yourself..."
I see what you did there ;)
The story made my day.
As a kid I let bees walk onto my hand from a flower or plant. I'd wander round with them for a bit then pop them back where I found them. I thought they were cute and fluffy. I was always extremely gentle and they didn't seem to mind at all. The only time I got stung was when I did a cartwheel and accidentally crushed one. I was far more upset about hurting the bee (that I hadn't noticed in the grass) than getting stung. I still love bees now and have a garden packed full of lavender plants for them :-)
love seeing this made my day also wish more people would be kind to all the creatures of the earth including humans yes some are more deserving than others like the robbing politicians and dictastors dont think these guys deserve a second chance
First person to have insects as pets??? I bet many small-scale, home beekeepers (myself included) would argue with that! We love our bees, care for them as we do all the other critters we have cared for. I have also kept a colony of milkweed bugs in my house when my daughter was young, so she could learn about insect life-cycles (milkweed bugs, of the order Hemiptera, have a "incomplete" lifecycle) . Which brings me to my second point - HER bond with that bee does NOT prove that people can form bonds with insects. That has been proven, many times over, by many people long before her. Is is one of a long line. But, good for her to adopting that bee!
Each year we have a heartbreaking scenery on a street in The Hague. Bumblebees lying in their hundreds under an avenue of Linden trees. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/science/dead-bumblebees-trees.html
why are they dying?
Because humans killed the variety of blossoming plants. In the heat in the middle of summer those trees are often the only ones providing nectar needed by the insects. So lots of bumblebees fly to these lime trees. When the number of insects increases too much the bumblebees simply starve to death. Thanks to us humans.
to Janine B: is The Hague doing anything to help? There's a few initiative here for people in cities to plant bee-friendly plants....
The bee movie... except 40 years later
Just don't try this with a wasp. Those things are aggressive and seem to sting for the thrill of it.
Wasps exist to contain the bee population and to preserve yeast that helps ferment wine grapes in their digestive tracts over the winter.
Wasps are the Canadian Geese of the insect world.
What's wrong with Canada geese? All the ones I've met have been really sweet!
Wasps are the Americans of the insect world !
Such a precious relationship!!!!
I wonder for how long this bumblebee did live in the end.
Same!
Bee movie!!! Thinking bee! thinking bee!
Respect!
The earth bumblebees? Very sweet story.
did this come from buzzfeed?
Lol good one!
Aaaah this is precious, but my aphiphobia is just noping all over :( I know they don't do anything at all, but I'm for some reason deathly afraid of bees...
Don't worry. I'm afraid of worms to the point where every encounter is borderline traumatic to me.
omg its the Bee movie. oh god SAVE THE HONEY!
COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This would have been awesome "Bee movie"
Eikö se pistä
of course humans can have bonds with insects, i have bonds with spiders, ants (yes ants) dragon flies and a bunch more. This woman is my role model xD
This is a sweet story, reminds me of my 3rd grade teacher who as a child her and her sister would go out to a meadow to pick flowers and one summer there was a bumblebee who would land on her and she could pet it, for the longest time she would go out everyday to pick flowers and pet the bumblebee, no one believed her and her sisters story of their pet bumblebee that would come to be petted like a cat until one day they took their parents to show them & Sure enough the bee came to them to be petted.
One of my best memories of going to London was when I came across a bumblebee in a public garden and freaked out in excitement. They looked like they were wearing fuzzy jumpers compared to our Aussie bees, that my mum (from Ireland) insists are wasps. They aren't just much smaller. I chased it through several garden beds to some workers chagrin as it buzzed around like it was on a honey high. They are GORGEOUS and precious. Take care of them folks, we can't do without our pollinators, no plants no food, no life.
i've saved a bee 2 days ago from the cold.I brought Him (it didn't have a stinger so i assumed it was a male)in and fed him some honey and after it finished eating i've set Ben the bee free
this restored my faith in the human race!
A ball of fur!
SO ducking cute
So great
I unknowingly brought a solid black one of these inside with me while working in the yard. I propped up a pillow and relaxed in front of the TV. When I leaned back, I felt something sticking me. I was in the bushes and thought it was a twig. That happened five times. When I finally sat up, I heard the buzzing of an insect. It was huge. I trapped it and released it back outside. I had 5 minor stings on my back.
I befriended a beetle one year. It would come out from under the cabinets to eat and drink. I also saved a praying many is that had its foot stuck in the seam of the hood of my car...
The bee is really friendly, they don't have sting but they can badly bite!
I love this. Nothing in the world beats love and kindness.
This is a very sad and lonely woman...
Aw! Such a loving person! As someone who is (deathly) afraid of wasps and stinging bees, I have to say it freaked me out a bit at the start. Adorable, though!
This is the most BEAUTIFUL thing I've seen today. My rainy sick day has been made. WOW
So adorable!
awesome :D
I told my bug-loving mom about this and she said she once gave CPR to a dragonfly that fell in her pond. Of course I had questions. She just blew on it until it woke up and there were no chest compressions.
Poor bee...born without wings. Glad she found a friend. Warms my heart!
Oh god. Millenials everywhere will start ripping the wings off bumblebees to have as adorable trending pets. It will become 'a thing".
This is awesome.
I'm crying
This is wonderful👏 the world needs people like this
I love this so, so much!!!
Bumblebee's are awesome. They're just these chubby fluffy little dudes who do their thing. You leave them alone, they leave you along. Hornets and Wasps....totally different and yeah no....just no.
what are you doin' with that bee there, edith?
Wonderful and amazing
Bumble bees live for only 28 days :(
Adorable!! And possible way to make people see that we need these guys on earth!!
She is the bumblebee whisperer. What a wonderfull story !
Reminds me of that Cow and Chicken episode where Cow becomes friends with a fly :D
Delightful... one of the best stories I've read here at Bored Panda. Thanks. ♥
How adorable.
HOLY CRAP IT'S THE BEE MOVIE LOL
oh wait... I'm not very original am i...whoops.
Poor bumblebee, I'm glad it have shelter
The first person to keep bees as pets? What about BEEkeepers?
They tend to keep bees for profit, selling honey and beeswax. Although they can get attached to their bees and care for them, they aren’t really pets.
It didn't even try to sting her so it must have felt safe.
Bumble bees are so sweet. I've saved multiple. I name them too.
THIS IS ADORABLE <3<3
This is just so darling. I can't take how adorable Fiona is with her cute and fuzzy little bumblebee baby! ❤
Best story ever! You're fantastic, Fiona.
Do bumblebees sting? If so, how did she not get stung?
They can sting when threatened. I assume the reason she didn't get stung was that the bee did not feel threatened or did not have a stinger - only the workers and the queen does, and according to the above it was a queen? But for example tarantulas can be kept as pets without biting.
Bumblebees are very relaxed insects. In summer I often hold those fluffy little guys in my hands just because I like them so much. They often climb on your hand when offered. When it's really hot you often get to find exhausted bumblebees on the streets. I always pick them up and carry them to my garden and I never got stung. They are really cute little guys.
They can sting (and do so if they need to defend their nest), but their venom is fairly weak. I would assume it just didn't feel threatened.
As charming a story this is, but surely if its a virus that caused this then the longer the bee was alive the more chance of passing it onto other bees?
🐝❤️
❤️🐝
Coming to Disney in 2020....
I know Dreamworks made Bee Movie (a great underrated film), but Disney should do something with this, it's almost a Finding Nemo style character...
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
I was 12 years old and shooting basketball alone in my backyard. For no reason a bee that I never saw came up behind me and stung me on the center of my back. I went into anaphylactic shock and nearly died. I have immediately attacked and killed any bee I see from that day forward. I wish this one had died as well.