Donna saw a bumblebee poop on a rose of Sharon flower… how cool is that!
In that same rose of Sharon, just a day or two earlier, I saw a bumblebee – might even have been the same one – cavorting in a flower whose stamens were so loaded with pollen that the bee was covered in it.
The bumblebee was lurching and giddily rolling around in its bed of pollen like a drunken sailor at the end of a pub crawl during an extended shore leave.
By the time she was ready to set sail, she was literally covered from the top of her clypeus to the tip of her tarsus.
And speaking of bumblebee feet… they stink.
I’m not kidding.
But to be truthful, I have to take scientists’ word for it. I haven’t smelled their feet myself (the bumblebees’, not the scientists’… although I haven’t gone out of my way to smell any scientists’ feet, either).
Apparently, those tiny feet (again, the bumblebees’, not the scientists’) carry enough odour that they can stink up an entire flower for hours. At least, the odour left behind by their feet is strong enough for bumblebees – whose sense of smell may be better than dogs’ – to detect it.
Bumblebees can use their foot odour to tell whether and when a flower has been visited by themselves or one of their relatives – for bumblebees, as with humans, foot odour is one of those things that involves the whole family.
Not only do bumblebees rely on their stinky feet to keep track of where they’ve been, it helps them pick the best places to eat. Stinking up the entrance to a flower is like writing a Yelp review… or like leaving a smelly sock at your favourite diner.
Next time your spouse complains when you take off your shoes, you can explain some of the benefits of malodorous feet.
Step out into the garden and take a look around you – really look at what’s around you – and if you let yourself, you’ll always find something that will astonish you.
Or take a walk through the park.
Or just take a close look at some blades of grass next to the sidewalk you’ve trudged along mindlessly for years.
Even the tiniest bit of nature is filled with astonishment – even something as astonishingly tiny as a bumblebee’s foot.