The Atlantic

Tiny Bees Fed On a Woman’s Tears—But Nature Gets Worse

Here are six other living things you don’t want to get stuck in your eye.
Source: Paulo Whitaker / Reuters

Bee stings hurt like hell, but there’s reason to consider yourself lucky if a venomous prick is the worst you’ve suffered from bees. Last week, Taiwan’s CTS news channel reported that a 29-year-old woman had gone out for a walk in the mountains and returned home with eye pain that wouldn’t go away. The next day, an ophthalmologist pulled four bees—all still alive—from under her right eyelid.

It might seem unbelievable that anyone could last the night with four bees lodged in the eye, but these specific insects were smaller than the common buxom bumblebee. As Hung Chi-ting, who treated the woman at Fooyin. Colloquially, they’re called sweat bees, named after one of their favorite foods.

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Atlantic

The Atlantic4 min read
Private Equity Has Its Eyes on the Child-Care Industry
Updated at 1:30 p.m. ET on February 22, 2024. Last June, years of organizing in Vermont paid off when the state’s House and Senate passed landmark legislation—overriding a governor’s earlier veto—that invests $125 million a year into its child-care s
The Atlantic5 min readSocial History
The Pro-life Movement’s Not-So-Secret Plan for Trump
Sign up for The Decision, a newsletter featuring our 2024 election coverage. Donald Trump has made no secret of the fact that he regards his party’s position on reproductive rights as a political liability. He blamed the “abortion issue” for his part
The Atlantic4 min readAmerican Government
How Democrats Could Disqualify Trump If the Supreme Court Doesn’t
Near the end of the Supreme Court’s oral arguments about whether Colorado could exclude former President Donald Trump from its ballot as an insurrectionist, the attorney representing voters from the state offered a warning to the justices—one evoking

Related Books & Audiobooks