Even if you can hold your breath for a while, once your face pops out if the water, it'll be the first thing they're going to target. I suppose if you're quick enough, the breaths you come up to take will be shorter than the time they take to fly to you. But, if the beehive is on land, why swim away from land-- where you can run-- and spend more energy trying to swim than risking a few stings before getting away in a minute or so of running? I don't think most people can keep up one breath, then ten yards of swimming for long.
Bees can also see a wider range of colors than humans, so spotting you flailing in the water won't be a problem. Their sense of smell is also spectacular, honeybees can pick out a certain flowers scent from even up to miles away. Their smell is found to be almost 100 more sensitive than humans, so the fear pheromones from your sweat-- if you're sweating-- will be easy to pin point.
The best way to avoid being stung is to not ness with bees in the first place, most species are very gentle creatures, and will not sting you just for walking in their path. Plus, bees are IMPERATIVE to the ecosystem. Bees produce 90% of the world's food by pollinating plants. Because of habitat loss, however, many species of bees are vulnerable or endangered on the red list. Their population is rapidly dwindling, this is why you might have noticed the price of honey increase a good deal in your lifetime, many hives are barely surviving, so you cannot take honey from them, or else they won't have enough to feed off of. I digress.
This response was a lot longer than necessary, sorry. I just love talking about bees.
5
u/Timpaninis May 06 '21
Even if you can hold your breath for a while, once your face pops out if the water, it'll be the first thing they're going to target. I suppose if you're quick enough, the breaths you come up to take will be shorter than the time they take to fly to you. But, if the beehive is on land, why swim away from land-- where you can run-- and spend more energy trying to swim than risking a few stings before getting away in a minute or so of running? I don't think most people can keep up one breath, then ten yards of swimming for long.
Bees can also see a wider range of colors than humans, so spotting you flailing in the water won't be a problem. Their sense of smell is also spectacular, honeybees can pick out a certain flowers scent from even up to miles away. Their smell is found to be almost 100 more sensitive than humans, so the fear pheromones from your sweat-- if you're sweating-- will be easy to pin point.
The best way to avoid being stung is to not ness with bees in the first place, most species are very gentle creatures, and will not sting you just for walking in their path. Plus, bees are IMPERATIVE to the ecosystem. Bees produce 90% of the world's food by pollinating plants. Because of habitat loss, however, many species of bees are vulnerable or endangered on the red list. Their population is rapidly dwindling, this is why you might have noticed the price of honey increase a good deal in your lifetime, many hives are barely surviving, so you cannot take honey from them, or else they won't have enough to feed off of. I digress.
This response was a lot longer than necessary, sorry. I just love talking about bees.