Last Thursday I got stung again. This time it was near my elbow. I had a similar reaction when I got stung on my hand; my elbow swelled up so you couldn’t see my bone anymore. Fortunately I could still move it around and the swelling is going down a lot faster. It could be because I’m still on antibiotics, but I’m thinking that my body reacts differently to stings depending where I get stung. I didn’t get any reaction such as swelling on my neck before. My hand exploded. So, my elbow falls somewhere in between that.
My research advisor suggested to wear a bee suit, but I get incredibly hot even in shorts and shirt. Wearing one of the lab’s bee suit is like wearing the loaned, maybe-washed P.E. clothes because you forgot your own. Actually it’s not that bad. I just don’t feel comfortable sweating freely in something that’s not mind. I would love to have this meshed bee suit, but it’s pretty pricey and I don’t think I’m willing to put down $130.00 just for a jacket. I’ll try wearing long sleeves for now….
Here’s some pictures as of late. This first one is a picture of a feeder inside one of my 24 foot long tunnels, lined with black duct tape to give the foragers an optical illusion that makes them think they travel farther than they really are. Wow that was wordy.. I think one of the reasons why I got stung was because there were simply too many bees to keep track of. Sometimes bees just land on your hand and if you’re not careful, you can accidentally get one angry by closing your hand or brushing it against something (which is what I’ve done, and one of my lab volunteers as well).
Flight of the bees
This picture below is of our stock colonies outside. Stock colonies contain a colony of honeybees inside a Styrofoam box. We place a feeder (mason jar) upside down with a water-sugar mixture to supplement them. In this case, the colony’s feeder was invaded by another honeybee colony and some wasps, if you can see.
One of our colonies got invaded by another colony, and wasps
Trigger’s been doing well. It’s been about a month and he’s adjusted quite well. He had some issues with his litter box (pooped on my bed), but I was able to resolve the problem. I think he didn’t like World’s Best Cat LItter, so I switched to Feline Pine, which he loves, and I love. It’s made out of recycled pine, which makes it environmentally friendly and smells good. The pine pellets turn into dust when in contact with liquid. Even Bill Nye the Science Guy approves!
Tirgger often uses me as a pillow.
