Playing chicken with a Bee

 

Sunday morning, 7:30 a.m., got into my car to drive to tennis.  I saw this bee resting on my front  windshield  motionless and directly in my view.  Should I flick it off, use my windshield wiper to swipe it, or just drive until the wind blows it away?

I opted for the latter, and by my estimate the 45 mph max speed in the canyon should get the job done nicely.  Wrong!  I drive the few minutes at the slow speed limit until I get to the 55 mph zone.  The bee still didn't budge.  By this time I had detected no movement, as if the bee had died and somehow superglued to my windshield.

Shortly after, I entered the 65 mph speed limit zone, and in an irritated state let the gas pedal rip.  65, 75, 85..... No?! 95.... oh yeah?!!!  How about 103 mph bitch?  Can you take that?  Yes it can and yes it did, with no detectable movement whatsoever.  At this point, I backed down because the situation was getting too contentious.  I decided to wait to park the car at the tennis courts and opt for a physical confrontation.

When I stopped at the intersection of the 133 freeway and Laguna Canyon Road for a left turn, I lifted my phone to get a close-up of the bee, but after three tries - bee came out blurry each time - in what can only be described as nothing short of a miracle, the bee came back to life, turned 90 degrees and began climbing my windshield, and after a few steps flew away!

How can a pipsqueek insect even breathe in conditions of warp drive speed for an extended period of time, nevermind that it held on to my windshield at 103 mph??  Does a bee even breathe?

It turns out bees do take in oxygen like humans, and exhale, except not through their mouth and nose.  According to BuzzAboutBees.net, "Bees have pairs of holes in the body called 'spiracles'.  You could call them 'air holes'. There are 20 spiracles in total, arranged in a neat line along each side of the body.  The spiracles have valves which control the air flow in and out of the bee's body.

My little game of chicken with this bee proves bees can continue to breathe through their 20 airholes at prohibitively high velocities.  And this poor bee is highly unlikely to find its way back to its colony, 6.4 miles away.