Snakes and Honey bees

Introducing the Honey Bee

The deadliest of all Australian Animals, responsible for an average of 10 deaths per year, is the European Honey Bee.

Environmental hazards

In North America, Africanized bees have spread across the southern United States where they pose a small danger to humans, although they may make beekeeping (particularly hobby beekeeping) difficult and potentially dangerous.

As an invasive species, feral honey bees have become a significant environmental problem in places where they are not native. Imported bees may compete with and displace native bees and birds, and may also promote the reproduction of invasive plants that native pollinators do not visit. Also, unlike native bees, they do not properly extract or transfer pollen from plants with poricidal anthers (anthers that only release pollen through tiny apical pores), as this requires buzz pollination, a behavior which honey bees rarely exhibit. For example, Gross and Mackay (1998) found that honey bees reduce fruiting in Melastoma affine (a plant with poricidal anthers) by robbing stigmas of previously-deposited pollen.

But even people allergic to bee stings are nowhere near as scared of bees as most people are of Australian snakes.

They also don't scream and jump up and down or try to kill any bee that ventures near them. They stay calm and act sensibly to avoid getting stung.

So why do we react with fear and panic when it comes to Australian venomous snakes?

Evidence indicates that a lot of our fear of snakes is instinctive. On other continents, where venomous snakes evolved together with humans, this might make sense. Snakes there have developed means to defend themselves against human predation, for example spitting venom like the Cobra does.

Like all other Australian animals our poisonous snakes haven't had to deal with humans until more recently. As a result they are very inoffensive and shy. Snake bites are not a common occurrence in Australia at all!

If you look at the circumstances involved in snake bites in Australia you will notice the following:

• Most of the bites happen to males. (Heroism?)
• Many bites happen when people handle or try to kill venomous snakes.
• Many bites happen when people tread on snakes. (Correct behaviour and footwear can avoid these bites.)
• Alcohol is involved in a significant number of snake bites.

Take away all the avoidable bites and for a 24 year period (1980 - 2004) you are left with two unavoidable fatal bites by Australian venomous snakes, plus another four where there was insufficient data to determine the cause of the bite. (Given the much more widespread availability of antivenin it might be possible to save a person in the same circumstances today.)

When snake bite fatalities per million inhabitants are compared, Australia's venomous snakes pale to insignificance, especially next to places like India, South America and Africa. Even the figure for the USA is clearly higher (Australia 0.13, USA nearly 1).

Largely due to their behaviour, Australia's poisonous snakes are actually some of the least dangerous in the world.

Let's look at a different aspect.

So why do we react with fear and panic when it comes to Australian venomous snakes?

Evidence indicates that a lot of our fear of snakes is instinctive. On other continents, where venomous snakes evolved together with humans, this might make sense. Snakes there have developed means to defend themselves against human predation, for example spitting venom like the Cobra does.

Like all other Australian animals our poisonous snakes haven't had to deal with humans until more recently. As a result they are very inoffensive and shy. Snake bites are not a common occurrence in Australia at all!

If you look at the circumstances involved in snake bites in Australia you will notice the following:

• Most of the bites happen to males. (Heroism?)
• Many bites happen when people handle or try to kill venomous snakes.
• Many bites happen when people tread on snakes. (Correct behaviour and footwear can avoid these bites.)
• Alcohol is involved in a significant number of snake bites.

How Venomous Are Australian Snakes Really?

When you look for information about Australian venomous snakes you read statements like these again and again:

• Australian snakes are the most venomous in the world.
• 7 of the worlds 10 most poisonous snakes live in Australia.
• You will likely come across a list of the worlds most venomous snakes, starting like this:

1. Inland Taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus)

2. Eastern Brown Snake (Pseudonaja textilis)

3. Coastal Taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus)

4. Mainland Tiger Snake (Notechis scutatus)

5. Peninsula or Black Tiger Snake (Notechis ater niger)

• The first five snakes and most of the snakes on the list are Australian.

Snakes? They are not dangerous to you if you use some common sense and follow the guidelines spelled out on the Australian snakes page. Snakes will not attack like crocodiles do, they only pose a danger when provoked. You can read more about Australian snakes and how to avoid them here.

The last deadly spider bite in Australia was recorded in 1955! The Sydney Funnel-web Spider appears only in and around Sydney. Its venom can be dangerous to frail and weak people. The much touted Redback Spider is not deadly. A bite can cause great discomfort and makes some people sick, but it doesn't kill.

Last casuality: January 2006 - A 9 years old girl was with the family in a beach in the Australian Northeast. Even taken to the nearest hospital, she couldn't survive the toxins of the Box Jellyfish.

Irukandji- Another jellyfish but instead of having several tentacles, it is only 1 centimetre or half an inch in length. It can barely be spotted by the naked eye. In the week we wrote this page, 2 deaths were registered by this jellyfish which is the smallest animal on earth capable of killing humans. They inhabit the same region, but instead of killing in a matter of minutes the symptoms are progressive and may take more than 24 hours to show up. Years before, the symptoms were associated with natural causes such as a heart attack or something else, because they are easily confused with pain in the back, difficulty breathing etc.. Only a few years ago scientist started to associate these symptoms and deaths with something so minute as this jellyfish. If the symptoms are not treated in a hospital they may cause death. At present, an University in Cairns has been conducting researches on this animal.

There was a quesation of Credibilit. This is the information from entirely different source.

Why there are not more Deaths from these dangerouse source?

Australia put a huge amount of effort in achieving the anti Venims required to combat all these poisonous aniimals that abound in Australia

Note:On many beaches in the North-Eastern part of Australia you may find that at the main beach access, there will be a box (like a letter box) containing a bottle of Vinegar to be used in emergencies for box jellyfish and other jellyfish. If there isn't one, most people have vinegar in their homes and are always happy to help someone who has been stung.