To Bee Or Not To Bee.

I won't bother talking about the  ジェリー・サインフェルド (Jerry Seinfeld) extravaganza, Bee Movie, rather I'm going to talk about 昆虫物語みつばちハッチ ～勇気のメロディ～ Mitsu-Bachi Hachi which is a new movie about a Honeybee named Hutch.

Of course, what I didn't realize is that Hutch has been around since 1970 in The Adventures of Hutch the Honeybee.

 

The new movie looks about the same but they have improved upon the animation. Check it out.



I picked up a few CC Lemons that came with Bee-magnets that are a little too cute for my taste but one can always use magnets.

My friend Alex in the Burbs of Sendai says that he gets some nasty hymenopterans around his place called  雀蜂  (Suzume-bachi or Sparrow-Hornets, presumably so named due to their comparable size.)

These guys are huge, nasty & vicious little buggers. (Not to be confused with Suzumebachi from Bleach).



They can go into a hive of honeybees and a single one can wipe out thousands. The only defense is for the bees to surround him and flap their wings so fast that the temperature increases and the Hornet passes out!

I'm impressed that this guy stuck around as long as he did. But I'm glad he did; he's fairly informative.



These pictures are from my Pocket Guide to Japanese Insects. On the left is a クロスズメバチ (Black Sparrow-Hornet), on the right is a オオスズメバチ (Giant Sparrow-Hornet)　

This cute little fellow is a キイロスズメバチ (Yellow Sparrow-Hornet.)

If you want to catch a few, here's a simple video to show you how. He uses ume vinegar, grape vinegar and apple vinegar in the video, but even Fanta grape gets the job done. Once you've captured enough, you can make an alcoholic drink out of them. I've seen it for sale in the mountains but it costs about 50 bucks for a small bottle of wine.

In case you were thinking I was exaggerating about one Suzume-Bachi conquering a hive, here is a sampling.

If you are prone to nightmares, I suggest you stop reading this post about halfway down. (I guess I should have mentioned that sooner.)