I’m both allergic and still slightly phobic, and I would totally want to meet the bees. I have met bees as part of exposure therapy to diminish that phobia. They are cool as hell.
Not just honey bees either. I’ve even developed a fondness for bumblers. I still don’t want them on me, but I smile when I see them.
My parents taught me to leave them alone. I’m Indigenous Canadian and I grew up seeing my parents talking to creatures like they were people. They’d see a bee nearby and just ask it to leave … and most of the time it would. But other times, the bee would linger and they’d start getting mad at it and almost negotiating for it to leave until it eventually did. They would only kill it if it was endangering someone like a small child or baby or if the bee actually stung someone.
I do the same now … if I see a bug or a bee where it shouldn’t be, I just open the door or window and ask it to leave. Funny part is … 9/10 times, the bee takes the advice and just leaves.
Wasps on the other hand set off panic alarms, even with my parents because everyone knows these things are just born angry and will sting you relentlessly no matter what you ask of them.
Curiously, in my country we are taught that for wasps and hornets you must stay silent and wait still until they leave. Like dealing with a blind predator.
