Question about killing wasps and hornets (and other insects).
David
wasps or hornets that have come into my home,
etc. Sometimes (often) the initial blow does not
kill the poor animals, but leaves them twitching
and apparently suffering. In an effort to relieve
their pain as quickly as possible, I have tried
cutting their heads off. That has never done
the job of shutting them down though, and I
soon learned that crushing the mid section (the
thorax?) is what kills them completely. I've
wondered why that is the way to end the job
for many years. Is their brain in that part of their
body? Do they even have a brain?
Thank you for any reply!
David
honeybs
The "brain" in a bee is located in the head and is primarily
associated with the eyes (sight) and antennas (smell). The
Suboesophageal Ganglion is also locatyed in the head and
controls the movement of the head appendages.
The thorax has two Ganglions that control movements of the
legs and wings. The abdomen contains 5 Ganglions,one for
each segment. The first segment of the abdomen is controled
by the second Ganglion in the thorax.
All of the Ganglion are connected by a main nerve like our
spinal cord. Each Ganglion is in itself a little brain
center. That is why you can cut the head off and the bee
keeps moving. When you crush the thorax movement seems to
stop because there is no leg or wing movement.
As to if an insect can feel pain, who knows? It is rather
doubtful. We have a very sensitive nervous system for pain.
Most animals don't. There is no purpose for a bee to be
able to detect pain so why develope it?
Greg the beekeep
// Bee Just & Just Bee!
=8{ })))- Chicamuxen, Maryland, USA
\\ www.radix.net\~honeybs
Mary Fisher
.
There is no purpose for a bee to be
> able to detect pain so why develope it?
>
Mary the Beekeeper
honeybs
>Mary the Beekeeper
On what do you base this? A colony is a sum of its parts.
The parts are bees of course, therefore any threats are not
to the individual but to the colony. A bee stings defending
the colony not itself. The colony has integrity not the
bee.
Detecting pain would be harmful to the colony. If in
defending the colony a bee felt pain it would stop! That is
why we feel pain so we know when to stop before we get hurt.
Everything in nature can be reduced to duplicating its DNA.
That is the nature of the grand design. Nothing else
matters. Bees are driven by this principle in everything
they do.
We tend to try to give our bees far too many human traits
.Greg the beekeep
Mary Fisher
>
> We tend to try to give our bees far too many human traits
Don't include me in your 'We'. Anthropomorphism is not one of my
characteristics.
Mary. The Beekeeper
Cousin Doug
Live in an apartment building that has some that are taking over
(dropping out of light fixtures, crawling out of openings in ceilings,
etc.)
Thanks,
Cousin ("I didn't think a fat man could move so fast") Doug
Mary Fisher
Cousin Doug <dper...@ameritech.net> wrote in message
news:37B657FD...@ameritech.net...
> How can you get rid of bumble bees?
>
> Live in an apartment building that has some that are taking over
> (dropping out of light fixtures, crawling out of openings in ceilings,
> etc.)
Seal the openings. They won't be there long. You can only get rid of them by
killing them and you wouldn't want to do that. 'Taking over' is a little
hyperbolic, isn't it?
Mary
