• nathanjent@programming.dev
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    17 hours ago

    Bumble bees also eat small animals such as spiders, aphids and wasps not strictly nectar and pollen. I would be concerned having other small pets around these “kitten bees”.

    • alekwithak@lemmy.world
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      24 hours ago

      If there was a pet bumblebee industry there would also likely be a bumblebee cosmetic surgery industry like we see with other popular pets. I’m sure stinger removal would be a standard procedure for an indoor bee. Or they’d be bred out after so many years. Probably designer bee coats as well. I bet they’d bee pretty cute and cuddly.

      • Ada@piefed.blahaj.zone
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        22 hours ago

        Bumblebees are not aggressive, and even though they can sting without dying (unlike honeybees), they generally don’t. It would be like getting bitten by a Labrador. It’s possible, but something went wrong somewhere for things to end that way…

        • alekwithak@lemmy.world
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          22 hours ago

          I’m by no means accusing any bees of violence beyond what is warranted, or any hypothetical pet bees of aggression, but as it is humanity clips dogs’ tails and ears and breeds them into monstrosities for no reason other than aesthetics, so why wouldn’t we do the same to any other hypothetical pet?

          • PabloSexcrowbar@piefed.social
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            19 hours ago

            There are actually legitimate reasons to crop tails and ears in certain breeds. For instance, a lot of dogs with very floppy ears get ear infections so frequently and severely that they end up going deaf, and cropping them is a last-ditch effort to prevent that from continuing. I’ve also heard of at least one dog that broke his very skinny tail so many times from wagging it against furniture in happiness that he had to have it cropped.

    • daannii@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      Okay but assuming all body parts would scale up the same.
      The stinger would be incredibly blunt.

    • backalleycoyote@lemmy.today
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      21 hours ago

      Bumblebees average 100-150mg and have a ~2mm straight, barbless stinger. The average housecat weighs 8-10lbs. Using 125mg and 9lbs (4,082,331.3mg), the big bee is ~32,658.65x increased in mass. The cube root for this is 32. So big bee has a 64mm (2.5”) stinger. That’s roughly the size of the talons on a golden eagles front digits. Also the same size as the infamous sickle claw of a scientifically accurate velociraptor.

        • backalleycoyote@lemmy.today
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          3 hours ago

          An eighth would be “28 bees”.

          Busted for trafficking- “Dude got caught haulin’ hives.”

          OD- “stung by a killer bee”

          Grow your own weed- “backyard beekeeper”

          Cook your own meth- “backyard waspkeeper”

            • backalleycoyote@lemmy.today
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              5 minutes ago

              It’s all fun and games until some little old lady that sells organic honey at the farmers market has the Feds kick down her door because she’s in the wrong state to call her business “Grannie’s Backyard Bees”. Even worse when they discover grannie’s really has been hustling since ‘67.