English archive > Stings and bites > Anecdotari

The hieroglyphics on the walls of the tomb of the pharaoh Menes, dating back to 2821 BC, tell us that he died from a bee sting. Nobody knows how this allergy to bees has survived, but in the United States of America the death toll of victims who die as a result of being stung by hymenoptera is between 50 and 100 every year.

These figures prove that the allergy still has a hold.

While you may not think so, insect bites can actually be quite poetic. At least, that's how the writer Pere Quart saw it.

Flies and mosquitoes
Mother Nature, doing her best,
has furnished
for every nuisance
a pest.
As night draws in
there's no more fly bites
but the mosquitoes
well, they work nights.

Pere Quart