OH FUCK: Sweat-Eating Bees Are Invading Our Cities

[shian]

[img]http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17ldzxj6vw6svjpg/xlarge.jpg[/img]
[quote]
NEW YORK—A new bee is buzzing in Brooklyn: The tiny insect, the size of a sesame seed, sips the sweet nectar of the city—sweat.

"They use humans as a salt lick," said entomologist John Ascher, who netted the first known specimen of the species in 2010 while strolling in Brooklyn's Prospect Park near his home. "They land on your arm and lap up the sweat."

North America is home to thousands of species of native bees. But they have long been overshadowed by imported honeybees, prized for their honey and beeswax since the time of the Pharaohs and a mainstay of commercial agriculture. Now, native bees are generating serious buzz.

For Mr. Ascher, 41 years old, nothing quite brightens the day like a new box of unidentified bees landing on his desk from some distant glade. So puzzling was the greenish-blue city bee he netted, though, that it took Mr. Ascher, who oversees a digital catalog of 700,000 bee specimens at the American Museum of Natural History, months to pinpoint its proper place in the insect kingdom.

In the end, only DNA testing by sweat bee specialist Jason Gibbs at Cornell University could identify its niche. Last November, they announced the discovery of Lasioglossum gotham, in a peer-reviewed journal called Zootaxa. The newbie joined the growing catalog of easily overlooked wild native bees.

Sweat bees don't have a high profile outside academic circles. Unlike honeybees, which were originally imported from Europe, native bees don't make much honey. To their credit, though, sweat bees rarely sting; their occasional pinprick registers a one on the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, the lowest on the four-point scale. (Bullet ants and the tarantula hawk wasp rate a four.)

These bees prefer sweaty people—over most animals—because the human diet usually is so salty that their perspiration is saturated with the essential nutrient, experts said. Yet most people never notice when the tiny bees alight on a bare arm or leg.

As it turns out, Mr. Ascher and his colleagues are discovering New York City is a hive of activity.

By latest count, about 250 species of native bees are known to nest in sidewalk cracks, traffic median strips, parks, and high-rise balcony flower pots—more perhaps than any other major city in the world, several entomologists said. In Prospect Park alone, at least 90 species of native bees flit from flower to flower among the park's sun-dappled golden rod, dandelions and dogwood.

"For certain species, the city is as good as or better than a natural area," Mr. Ascher said.

Hovering around city parks and flower beds are masked bees, miner bees, mason bees, plasterer bees, cuckoo bees, leafcutter bees, horned bees, and at least 49 species of sweat bees. "We routinely see bees 30 stories up in window gardens," Mr. Ascher said. A local bumblebee has even been spotted on the observation deck of the Empire State Building.

Sweat bees often live unobtrusively.

"You can have sweat bees nesting in your front yard and never know it," because they are so small and mild-mannered, said Cornell's Mr. Gibbs. "Hundreds can nest in a square meter of lawn."

As an urban wilderness, New York City continues to surprise field biologists. Not so long ago, museum bug hunters discovered a new genus of centipedes—perhaps the world's smallest—under the fallen leaves in Central Park. In 2009, a new species of cockroach turned up in a West Side supermarket. Earlier this year, researchers at Rutgers University and the University of California identified a previously unknown species of leopard frog whose natural range centers on Yankee Stadium.

The discovery of this new sweat bee species—which belongs to a large family of bee species that depend on human perspiration for salt to survive—highlights the importance of the thousands of native bee species in pollinating plants, flowers and fruits.

Sweat bees aren't ready to swarm into the commercial workplace. But other native bees are gaining scientific attention at a time when honeybee hives are plagued by myriad problems that threaten their survival.

SWEAT BEE

"We've neglected the native bees because the honey bee was so successful," said entomologist Anne Averill at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst who is conducting a $3.3 million federal study of native bees in 10 states. They hope to expand the role of native bees in agriculture.

Not a single native plant in North or South America actually needs a honeybee to survive, so long as native bees thrive, museum and university entomologists said. Untended and largely unnoticed, native bees play a role in pollinating cash crops such as tomatoes, cranberries, alfalfa and squash. They are more prevalent among farmers' fields than previously believed, often more effective than honeybees as pollinators and more resistant to the problems that have decimated honeybees in the U.S. and Europe, several studies show.

Unlike many honeybees, urban bees in the Northeastern U.S. have adapted to rising temperatures, which have caused spring—and the first bloom of flowers for pollination—to arrive about 10 days earlier in recent years, Rutgers University researchers said.

It isn't easy keeping track of so many bees.

Sweat bees encompass an unusually broad range of behaviors, but often differ from each other in almost imperceptible ways. All that distinguishes the Gotham sweat bee from its most closely related species is the pattern of bristles on its abdomen and a few links of DNA. They are so hard to tell apart that agriculture experts world-wide are hard-pressed to take stock of them all.

"If there is a new bee species in New York, imagine the situation...somewhere in South America," said Mr. Ascher. "It is hard to effectively manage pollinators if they have not been named scientifically."

At the American Museum of Natural History, Mr. Ascher and his colleagues scramble to keep up with requests to catalog unidentified bee species. Museum corridors are a honeycomb of bee boxes and specimen drawers packed with 450,000 preserved bees.

Almost every day new native bee specimens arrive in the mail.

"We are finding out these things at a fast pace," Mr. Ascher said. "I just got another box of bees and there was a new species in Queens."[/quote]

[url]http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304356604577341683875011896.html[/url]

I imagine them buzzing around parks

[FuDy]

I'm gonna put a few under my shirt in substitute of deodorant

[MIPS]

:bees:

[spaceghost]

At least they aren't Japanese hornets, and these sound like they don't intend to sting you like those murderous assholes.

[img]http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6166/6242572228_c048944f24_z.jpg[/img]

[b]WHY[/b]

[Jetblack357]

[QUOTE=SpaceGhost;35795849]At least they aren't Japanese hornets, and these sound like they don't intend to sting you like those murderous assholes.

[img]http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6166/6242572228_c048944f24_z.jpg[/img]

[b]WHY[/b][/QUOTE]

I think bugs look friendly.

[NO ONE]

Instead of saying "AH FUCK THIS SOUNDS HORRIBLE THEY GONNA KILL US", I have to say these guys are kinda cool. I like the idea of a bee [i]not[/i] stinging me, and I also kinda like the idea they will slurp up my sweat.

I dunno if they do a good job in actually cleaning your sweat off of you, but it still sounds like they are doing us a service of some sorts.

[CaptainJL]

[QUOTE=Jetblack357;35795900]I think bugs look friendly.[/QUOTE]
Some of them can (jumping spiders, for example), but a hornet pushing 2" long? Fuck that.

[Red scout?]

Oh god, they are going to be all over you guys.

:(

[Jax Strife]

Sweat bees? Nothing new in Ohio. And they do sting occasionally, or at least bite.

[RyanH]

Nopenopenope.

[Thlis]

[QUOTE=SpaceGhost;35795849]At least they aren't Japanese hornets, and these sound like they don't intend to sting you like those murderous assholes.

[IMG]http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6166/6242572228_c048944f24_z.jpg[/IMG]

[B]WHY[/B][/QUOTE]

ohgodwhy

centimeter long stingers

[alxnotorious]

What's next, sweat-eating spiders?

NOPE

[Banshee Friend]

We've already got Sweat bees in Georgia, In fact they're the smallest type of bee you can find here. And their sting doesn't hurt at all in comparison to any other bees'.

[Dredile]

I dont know why lol but snakes dont scare me, spiders do a little bit. But bugs (especially bees) just scare the shit out of me. Those spiny horned legs latching on to you with like a million eyes as it plunges its satanic sharp stinger into your flesh. good god

[ayay]

[QUOTE=SpaceGhost;35795849]At least they aren't Japanese hornets, and these sound like they don't intend to sting you like those murderous assholes.

[img]http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6166/6242572228_c048944f24_z.jpg[/img]

[b]WHY[/b][/QUOTE]

I think I'll just end my life now, so I never have to run into one of these

[Source]

Deodrant sales go up 1,000,000%

[Riutet]

[QUOTE=Alxnotorious;35796026]What's next, sweat-eating spiders?

NOPE[/QUOTE]

There is only one fluid a spider would consume from a human.

Tears.

[Bobie]

well i think its about time i made that big move to mars cya guys

[Walrus.]

[QUOTE=Source;35796145]Deodrant sales go up 1,000,000%[/QUOTE]

Deodorant only stops it from smelling, hence DE-ODOR-ANT.

Something that stops you from sweating (perspiring) is an antiperspirant.

[Mikaru-Yanagida]

[QUOTE=Jax Strife;35795947]Sweat bees? Nothing new in Ohio. And they do sting occasionally, or at least bite.[/QUOTE]
Shit, I work outside bringing carts in and it's hot today. NOPE NOPE NOPE.

[Jax Strife]

[QUOTE=Mikaru-Yanagida;35796652]Shit, I work outside bringing carts in and it's hot today. NOPE NOPE NOPE.[/QUOTE]
They mostly bite/sting (I can't really tell) me while swimming. Not too much trouble when doing manual labor.

[DanRatherman]

Now if we can harvest their honey I propose a simple end to world hunger. Universal Treadmill Bee-Keeping.

[D_M_]

Brb cutting out all my sweat glands.

[Hidole555]

[QUOTE=DanRatherman;35797001]Now if we can harvest their honey I propose a simple end to world hunger. Universal Treadmill Bee-Keeping.[/QUOTE]

Instead of honeysweet , honeysweat.

[Soleeedus]

[QUOTE=SpaceGhost;35795849]At least they aren't Japanese hornets, and these sound like they don't intend to sting you like those murderous assholes.

[img]http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6166/6242572228_c048944f24_z.jpg[/img]

[b]WHY[/b][/QUOTE]

that guy has balls of solid marble

[IMG]http://cdn-www.cracked.com/articleimages/wong/gianthornet1.jpg[/IMG]

[Snickerdoodle]

Sweat eating bees? I don't exercise, therefore I'm safe.

[BixByte]

Sweat eating bees?! And I live in Arizona...

FUCK

[zombays]

Sweat-eating bees? All we need to do is genetically modify them without a stinger, and BAM! New, permanent deodorant that tickles and buzzes

[MightyMax]

nature, couldn't you have picked a less disturbing animal for this job? like a beetle or something?

[Takkenrakker]

Sweat eating bees? I don't know what to put here, I don't feel like breaking the combo

[QUOTE=MightyMax;35797318]nature, couldn't you have picked a less disturbing animal for this job? like a beetle or something?[/QUOTE]

Damn you!