Post by Karl Aksel on Sept 8, 2019 8:06:42 GMT
Since bumblebees are somewhat endangered, I decided to do what I could for the little feller. First I got out my housekey from my pocket and dragged it away, but of course it was all covered in cobwebs. Then, carefully, with my key and a pocketknife, I set to work carefully removing strands of webbing. At first the bumblebee was moving frantically, trying to get away from me. I still succeeded in getting the most of the sticky webbing off, without harming Mr. B. It had some stuff left on one of its wings, but most of the remaining webbing was stuck to its stinger. It seemed to be able to clean its wings off rather well, but it struggled with freeing itself of the bundle of web on its stinger. I had spent 5-10 minutes cleaning it by now, and it didn't seem afraid of me anymore. In fact, at this point, it raised two of its legs, exposing its rear-end to me when I approached with the pocket knife, and with very careful surgery, I managed to get the last bit off.
It was just a little bit of webbing left, and it could easily have flown off with it if it had wanted to, because as soon as I got off the last remnants, it took off. It flew to the curtains of a nearby window, crawled a bit, and then took off again. Right into the living room, and smack into the living room wall. It fell behind the couch, but I found it again. I hadn't rescued it from the spider's clutches just for it to kill itself in such a stupid manner. But it was fine, and flew off again. This time, however, in the direction of a floor lamp, probably drawn to the light and heat. And the last I saw of it was a tiny whisp of smoke as it burned itself to a crisp as it landed by the halogen lamp, presumably on the glass covering it.
I really am quite annoyed. The spider must be furious with me, and I don't blame it. I had deprived it of a humongous meal, easily ten times its own size, and for what? I was so pleased with my successful efforts in rescuing that bumblebee, I had really hoped it wold do something with its life.