When I was four years old, I had a kiddie pool in the back yard. One day, I saw that a fly had landed in the water and was in danger of drowning, so I carefully picked it up to set down on the ground.
I learned three valuable lessons that day:
Daniel
This made me laugh out loud, although I do agree. I’m just not sure I could run faster than one could fly if it suddenly decided to turn not-so-good-natured.
Add my anecdote to the ‘yes, but under much provocation’ list. My cat once bought a bumblebee into the house in her mouth. Amusingly, her whole head was buzzing (she was only a kitten at the time) - I extricated it and it flew off. I was amazed though, that even in immediate danger it didn’t sting…
I’m bringing home a baby bumblebee
Won’t my mommy be so proud of me…
My buddy’s daughter used to pluck them off flowers on cool summer mornings and breathe on them until they were warmed up enough to fly away.
she’s going to be a total hippie when she grows up.
Trick if you want to take pictures of insects - catch them, and put them in the fridge. When they go into torpor, you can then take them out to a flower or whatever, pose them and take your pictures before they warm up again. It’s a good way to get “nature book” looking shots of things like butterflies and dragonflies.
If you can’t remember definitively whether the bee’s abdomen was shiny or hairy, that’s probably another good candidate for a male carpenter bee which couldn’t sting.
I’m not proud to admit this, but when I was a kid I used to stage Bumblebee death matches. I would catch a couple of Bumblebees and put them in a tub of water with a piece of wood in the middle. The two bees would be weighed down with water and couldn’t take off without drying off on the wood. But the wood was only big enough for one of the bees, so they would sting and try and drown each other until finally only one was left alive (though sometimes the victor didn’t last too long either) It provided much entertainment for me and my friends…
Yeah. I know. I’m a bad person.
You’re a sick son of a… 
!
Piker.
We used to go out and find 3 good sized spider webs with spiders in them.
We’d capture spider #1 & #2 and put them in spider #3’s web to fight it out. (spider #3 was fed to the neighbors cat before the bout). Hey, it was the 60’s. MTV and video games were a long way off.
So I leave home a little early on Fri after spending too much time cruising the Dope - including this thread. Sitting out front shooting the breeze with my daughter I say, “Woah - those are some huge bees at the corner of the house.” She responds, “Yeah, they’ve been there the last 2-3 days.”
Sonuvabitch! All of a sudden I’m thinking “Are they all black, or only mostly black?”
My other daughter catches one in a net, and after I impress her with my wisdom that they don’t sting, she makes like she is gonna dump it in my hair - making me squeal like a little girl. Was really happy to later read that it was only the males who don’t sting.
Little bastards had drilled 3 holes in my 2 year old painted cedar siding!
Went to the BORG early the next morning and bought spray and dust. Killed the suckers in those 3 holes, but have seen more buzzing around. They’d better be careful, tho, cause I’m armed and on the lookout!
My wife asked, “How the hell did you know about carpenter’s bees?”
To which I responded, “Doesn’t everybody?”
Thanks, Dopers!
We see lots of bees in our yard, and I’ve seen some hanging around the edge of our patio. What kind lives underground? I think we have a hive of them under our grass. I’d hate to kill them because they’re not aggressive, but I also don’t want them to get that way or do any damage to our house. Will they hurt anything if we just let them stay?