Bee afraid

October 8, 2007 11:20 AM

Elephants are afraid of the buzzing of bees.
posted by nowonmai (41 comments total)

I'm kind of wondering why they wouldn't be afraid of it...bee stings hurt!!!
posted by agregoli at 11:23 AM on October 8, 2007

...and the circle is finally closed. Bees are afraid of bears, bears are afraid of elephants, and elephants are afraid of bees.

Goodbye, all. I'm off to construct my long-awaited perpetual motion device. I'll let you know how it works out.
posted by koeselitz at 11:31 AM on October 8, 2007 [6 favorites has favorites]

Those are Republicans hightailing it.
posted by nickyskye at 11:32 AM on October 8, 2007

Bees (Lots of Bees).
posted by monju_bosatsu at 11:33 AM on October 8, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Happy elephant day!
posted by sveskemus at 11:37 AM on October 8, 2007

I dunno, koeslitz. I'd rather tie toast to cats than attach bees and bears to anything — and lemme tell you, tying toast to cats is pretty rough.
posted by nebulawindphone at 11:39 AM on October 8, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

If they're really scared, they should move faster!
posted by danb at 11:42 AM on October 8, 2007

In the interest of scientific accuracy I feel it necessary to state that a machine wherein bears chased bees chased elephants chased bears would fail as the component parts ran out of fuel and would therefore not be a true perpetual motion device.

Elephantastic features: ear flapping; alert head raises; the three micro 'phants in graduated sizes who exit in a body.
posted by Don Pepino at 11:44 AM on October 8, 2007

Elephants, Bees and Trees Project

Elephants, although thick-skinned, have weak spots that are vulnerable to bee stings such as the eyes, behind the ears and under the trunk, and local people have observed elephants being chased over long distances by bees.

posted by pracowity at 11:46 AM on October 8, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Happy elephant day!

Ditto.
posted by ericb at 11:56 AM on October 8, 2007

"Bee afraid", cute. Those bees were just coming over because everybody knows elephants can be honeybuns.

Elsewhere in the animal kingdom, others want to say "Buzz off!"
posted by nickyskye at 11:59 AM on October 8, 2007

Interesting. This might help with sugar stealing elephants, although they are pretty smart, they could figure out what's going on eventually. Unlike almost all other animals, they can comprehend that mirrors show them their own reflection, rather then showing them another animal.
posted by delmoi at 12:00 PM on October 8, 2007

Eddie Izzard, Covered in Bees.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 12:02 PM on October 8, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

I ♥ Eddie Izzard.
posted by ericb at 12:06 PM on October 8, 2007

John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson - Beekeeping.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 12:08 PM on October 8, 2007

Richard Avedon's Beekeeper photograph.^*
posted by ericb at 12:08 PM on October 8, 2007

You pipe Eddie Izzard?

or is that supposed to be some other symbol which my computer wrongly represents as a pipe for some unknown reason?
posted by sveskemus at 12:13 PM on October 8, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Is this some sort of Halo 3 viral?
posted by dazed_one at 12:15 PM on October 8, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

Yeah... so am I.
posted by wfc123 at 12:20 PM on October 8, 2007

Here's a probably apocryphal bee story: Somehow, it goes, a person involved with the making of horror films heard that Eskimos from so far north that they had never even seen a bee, became afraid when exposed to the "sound of angry bees". So they shook up some bees in a jar, taped the resultant angry sound, and slipped that sound subliminally into the soundtrack of their next horror feature. I guess it was worth a try if you lacked faith in your ability to make a truly scary flick.
posted by Hobgoblin at 12:23 PM on October 8, 2007

Elephants, although thick-skinned, have weak spots that are vulnerable to bee stings such as the eyes

I wouldn't want to be in the same area code as an elephant that just got stung in the eye by a bee.
posted by gottabefunky at 12:26 PM on October 8, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

or is that supposed to be some other symbol

It looks like a heart on mine.
posted by ericb at 12:32 PM on October 8, 2007

With the decrease in the bee population, are we due for an elephant infestation?
posted by Curry at 12:35 PM on October 8, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

You pipe Eddie Izzard?

or is that supposed to be some other symbol which my computer wrongly represents as a pipe for some unknown reason?

I bet you're using FireFox on OS X. For some reason FF on OS X will only display a ♥ inside monospace-font HTML tags (like the <code> tags I used above. Weird.
posted by tomsk at 12:36 PM on October 8, 2007

tomsk, indeed I am!
posted by sveskemus at 12:39 PM on October 8, 2007

Hooray. That has to be one of the most arcane web-codey things I know, I never thought I'd be able to share it with the world...

Can't help feeling a bit sorry for those poor scared elephants, although I'm glad that I know know what to do if I ever need to get a herd of inconvenient pachyderms off of my lawn.
posted by tomsk at 12:44 PM on October 8, 2007

Uh-oh. Today is actually International Cephalopod Awareness Day.
posted by ericb at 1:09 PM on October 8, 2007

suggesting African farmers could use bees to protect crops

...or just recordings of bees, perhaps.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 1:27 PM on October 8, 2007

These have to be African elephants. Why? Because of the bees.
posted by tommasz at 1:33 PM on October 8, 2007

LOLephants
posted by newmoistness at 2:24 PM on October 8, 2007

Bees are fucking scary; I don't blame the elephants.
posted by sutel at 2:31 PM on October 8, 2007

Especially when said bees bite you ON YOUR EYE.
posted by agregoli at 2:39 PM on October 8, 2007

I guess it was worth a try if you lacked faith in your ability to make a truly scary flick.

I don't understand that as a criticism. It's those obsessive touches that make a truly scary flick.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 2:41 PM on October 8, 2007

PLIGHT OF THE BUMBLEBEES
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 3:13 PM on October 8, 2007

FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLEBEES
posted by ericb at 4:37 PM on October 8, 2007

You know who else is afraid of bees?

Clowns.
posted by Smedleyman at 4:40 PM on October 8, 2007

- People play abnormally loud recording of bees buzzing
- Elephants notice the buzzing, become confused
- Elephants notice people hiding in bushes, recall that time mommy got killed by people hiding in bushes
- Elephants get the fuck away from people hiding in bushes
- Elephants tie toast to cats
posted by Reggie Digest at 5:18 PM on October 8, 2007

Also, there's that Seinfeld movie coming out. Any elephants in that?
posted by Reggie Digest at 5:21 PM on October 8, 2007

i think the horror film with the bees was amityville, or mayhap the exorcist.
posted by vrakatar at 5:33 PM on October 8, 2007

vrakatar: I thought Amityville as well, but it turns out they were flies and fly noises in the Exorcist. The Swarm was definitely bees, but the most horrifying thing about that was Michael Caine. There's a few b-movie bee movies but nothing worth actually hunting down, near as I can tell.

Shame really. I feel the world could be ready for

BUMBLEBEE: FUZZY KILLER

,-.
\ /
{|||)=
/ \
`-^

"oh death - where is thy sting?"
posted by Sparx at 1:46 AM on October 9, 2007

Elephants are afraid of random things. Like squealing pigs. True story: the ancient Romans, in order to combat elephants, used to light pigs on fire (in order to make damn sure they were squealing) and catapult them at the opposing army.

Maybe they should have just used bees.
posted by goingonit at 5:58 AM on October 10, 2007