Hours after 40 students of a government school were stung by honeybees, experts attributed the reason to the season.

Dr Neelam Kumar, Zoology department, PU, who is involved in an ongoing research on honeybees, says: “Honeybee never stings out of offence as in doing so it also looses a vital part of its body and dies within a few hours. With so many concrete structures around, bees hardly find a place to make their homes and in that process they fly really low thereby coming in contact with humans.”

Dr Kumar says while passing an area with honeybees around, one should cover the face and arms. Dr Kumar says one should not get nervous in case bees sting somebody around us. “One should start crawling with arms under the belly and should hide behind a tree trunk. Lying motionlessly helps and bees can be seen vanishing away soon,” she says.

Experts say the stung area should never be scratched rather the sting should be taken out with the fingers.

Extra care, however, needs to be observed here. If the sting is pushed deeper into the muscles, it can cause severe headache and digestive problems, say experts.

Dr Kumar adds: “The stung area should be kept under running cold water and no ointment or cream should be rubbed on the affected area. One should also have loads of water.”

What provokes
a honeybee to sting!
Sweat odour
Onion breath
Loud perfume
Perfumed lipsticks
Bright clothes