Every August, at the insistence of the queen, all bees must leave the colony and aggressively attack humans. Or so it would seem. Our youngest received his annual bee sting yesterday from some yellowjacket that thought it would be cool to inoculate a seven-year-old in the palm of his hand. I couldn’t help but ask him if he was carrying the bee around. His reply between sobs was a firm, resounding ‘NO!’ I also learned (through subsequent whimpers) that he wasn’t collecting, swatting at or otherwise aggravating said bee but was attacked unprovoked.
We’ve always told our boys that when a bee circles you, not to swat at it. The affirmative phrase, ‘if you leave them alone, they’ll have no reason to sting you’ was running through my mind as I tried in some way to explain to him why he was unjustly stung. I couldn’t think of anything. I just comforted him as he nursed his hand with a bag of ice, tears still rolling down his cheeks. I don’t know that I’ll correct him if he vengefully swats and kills the next bee that goes near him.