Original subtitles

Look at this.

That is a cow killer.

We literally were out here filming

me getting stung by a giant desert hairy scorpion.

And we were taking a break, and I came over to this pasture.

And I saw this cow killer scurrying around.

Oh, oh.

They're fast.

They're super fast.

Got it.

Woo!

All right, I think it's my turn to go arm to stinger with one

of the most painful stinging insects on the planet, the cow

killer of Arizona.

Let's go, guys.

The cow killer

is what the velvet ant is called in the United States,

because they are often found in cow pastures,

and their sting is said to be so horrible that it's

painful enough to kill a cow.

We don't even have to set up the sting table.

It's already set up.

Luckily, the sting of that giant desert hairy scorpion

wasn't that bad.

Oh. Oh my gosh.

The venom sprayed.

Did you see that?

So I'm going to be able to hopefully endure

one more before we head home.

So the first impressions of this cow killer,

which is a velvet ant, is that it

looks a lot different than the cow killer

that stung Coyote years ago.

It has the exact same patterning and fur.

But instead of a red abdomen, it has almost like a burnt orange

coloration.

And that's the cool thing about velvet ants.

They come in a variety of shapes, patterns, and colors.

And velvet ant species can be found all over the Americas.

But I happen to think the ones here in the Southwestern

United States are some of the coolest

looking of all the species.

It's called a velvet ant, but it's

not a species of ant at all.

In fact, it is a wingless wasp.

The males of this species actually

have wings and fly around.

But they don't have stingers.

Only the female velvet ants have stingers.

So we know because this one doesn't have wings,

it's definitely going to be able to give me a sting.

Now I have been stung by another species of velvet ant

before, the panda ant, where I was

the first person to ever document being stung

by this species down in Chile.

Ah!

Ooh, yeah, OK.

Definitely took a really good sting and a bite.

Oh man, the reality of this just set in.

I have the Sting Kill out.

I will treat this sting with the Sting Kill as well.

Of course, I've got an EpiPen just in case I have any kind

of crazy allergic reactions.

This is a first aid device that will

help me get to emergency medical attention should I need it.

Hopefully this is just a lot of pain

and we don't have to go down that route.

And with that, let's get a look at the stinger of this insect.

So this is always the tricky part, getting a grip.

And they're called the indestructible insect

because their exoskeleton, their body, is so strong.

It is way stronger than most insects.

So I'm not going to be able to crush it or hurt it whatsoever.

Oh.

You guys hear that?

I already heard something that I was curious about.

These insects have the ability to actually emit a squeak.

That's called stridulation.

It's a warning distress signal.

An alarm siren, if you will.

And this one, I just heard it.

Hear that?

You guys hear it?

Get your cameras close.

You'll be able to hear it.

Not quite as noisy as the panda ant.

But you can definitely hear it.

But don't worry, I'm not hurting this insect at all.

Now the stinger, look at how long it is.

Oh my gosh, look at that stinger.

The stinger of the cow killer is one of the longest

stingers of all insects.

In fact, to the body size ratio, it

has the longest stinger of any stinging insect on the planet.

Wow.

And because this one is bigger, that stinger

is much larger than the panda ant I was stung by in Chile.

Wow, that stinger is seriously large.

OK.

I think it is time to test out the sting

of this fuzzy little insect.

Are you guys ready?

We're ready.

OK, first thing I want to do is

I want to attempt to let the cow killer sting me on its own.

In order to do that, I'm going to put it back in the container,

and I'm going to just place it right on the usual spot.

On three.

1, 2, 3.

Oh boy.

I can feel the fuzz.

Ooh!

Abdomen's, like, right against my skin.

This is nerve-wracking.

I can see the cow killer's trying to get out of the glass.

Just as I thought.

Not going to sting on its own.

Here we go, I'm going to flip it over.

Woo!

All right, hang on.

That gets your nerves going.

OK.

All right.

So you don't really need to worry about taking a sting

from this insect unless you really antagonize it

by trying to grab it or hold it with a pair of forceps

and let it sting you that way, which

is what I'm about to do next.

Because I'm very curious how it stacks up to the velvet

ants of South America.

Moment's setting in, and I'm actually going to take a sting.

All right.

Let's get a good grip.

Just want to get it right on the back.

There we go.

OK.

It's getting warm.

She's getting fired up.

You can see where I had the glass

placed earlier to prove that she wasn't

going to sting me on her own.

But she's definitely going to sting me now.

That stinger is firing.

I'm going to do it right in the center of that sting zone.

All right.

I'm Mark Vins, and I'm about to enter

the sting zone with the velvet ant, the cow

killer of the Southwest.

On three.

1, 2, 3.

Ah, she's biting me.

Nothing yet.

I got that stinger.

Oh yeah.

Oh, wow.

Oh!

Whoa!

Way--

Oh.

Ah, yeah.

Stinger's in.

Wow!

Yeah, that is way worse than the panda ant.

Way worse.

- What's it feel like, Mark? - Oh, it burns.

It really burns. Here, I'm going to put her back.

Ah.

Ah, yeah.

That burns.

That definitely burns.

She nailed me, right there.

See that?

See that red spot?

Oh man, that is going to-- that is going to swell.

That is searing pain.

Way worse than the panda ant.

Like, times 10.

Times 10 worse.

That is a for real sting.

Holy moly.

Yeah, that's one of the better ones I've taken.

It is--

Oh.

Hang on.

Wow.

I got hit three times.

One, two, three.

The worst one being right there in the middle.

And I felt that stinger go all the way in.

I mean, probably like at least a quarter

inch underneath the skin.

You can see that there's a little bit of a blood

spot, a little bit of redness there

from like some hemorrhaging underneath the skin.

But you can really see the blotchiness starting to go.

I can already tell you right now,

the swelling from this tomorrow is going to be so much

worse than it is right now.

But right now, I'm feeling the effects of the venom, the pain.

And it is time for me, I think, to get a little bit

of Sting Kill on this sting.

Let's go.

Hopefully help cool down the burn I'm feeling on my skin.

Oh yeah, that's like a dull pain.

Cool relief, though.

Yeah.

This sting is way more powerful than the panda ant.

I don't know if it's a size thing

or if it's just generally the Southwest velvet ants,

the cow killers are just that much more painful.

But that was a wallop.

I'm glad to have a little something to help put

out the burn from that pain.

I can tell you right now, though, tomorrow's going

to be the worst day of this.

We're going to have to monitor this thing

for the next 24 to 48 hours.

I am by no means out of the woods.

And now it's

time to break down this sting and give

the cow killer its official ranking on the bite sting index.

For intimidation, I give the cow killer a 7.5 out of 10.

Even though they are fuzzy and colorful, once you see

that stinger all the way out, all bets are off,

and you know it means business.

As for pain, I was super shocked by this one,

because I thought it would be at least similar to the panda ant.

I was definitely wrong.

It was many times worse.

So I give it an eight out of 10.

Lastly, the aftermath.

The swelling and the pain spiked big time

in the hours following the sting and well into the next day.

While it was by no means a bullet ant,

it definitely hurts for a good long while.

And I would say the aftermath is much worse than the sting

itself, giving it an 8.5 out of 10.

That total score gives the cow killer an official BSI

rating of an eight.

That is the highest ranking so far, and a lot of bang

pow for such a tiny creature.

COYOTE PETERSON Usually we are

going after venomous snakes.

But you're not going to find those in Columbus, Ohio.

Today, we're meeting up with Luke, who

is a honeybee conservationist.

And we just got the call that he has spotted a massive hive.

We're about to go rescue hundreds,

if not thousands of honeybees.

He's already up there getting into the bees.

Hey, Luke.

Hey, how's it going?

Good.

Wow, well I guess we know where the bees are.

Right here, yes.

And I notice you're not wearing

any bee suit or mask at all.

Currently not.

Not until we agitate them a little bit.

Wow.

That looks agitated to me.

And I mean, me, I'm usually wearing bee suits

when I'm working with bees.

But Luke is fearless.

And today, we're going to be pulling

bees out of this entire pillar, you're guessing?

I would say it's probably like to about here.

Wow.

And how many bees do you think could be in there?

I think upwards of 30,000.

Seems realistic.

So my guess, when I was on the way here in the car,

I said, a few hundred bees, maybe a thousand bees.

That's a lot more bees than I anticipated.

So Luke's got everything already set up.

I'm going to get put to work.

And with any luck, we're going to relocate some bees.

So I see you're setting up a smoker first.

Is that just in case these bees get a little agitated

once we open up that pillar?

Exactly.

So the smoke, a lot of people say it calms them down.

It doesn't calm them down.

What it does is they communicate via pheromones.

And the number one smell becomes this smoke.

So their ability to communicate threats

suppresses because the smoke kind of covers up all the scent.

I love the smell.

What do you call this little thing?

The bee puffer?

Just a smoker.

A smoker.

Man, it smells so good.

I don't think we have anything yet.

Ooh, behind door number one.

Yeah.

Nothing.

Any stings yet?

No stings yet.

Wow, how about that?

There are so many bees flying around by you,

and not a single sting yet?

That's a pretty handy little saw he's using there.

It's precision work to get inside of a pillar like this.

To be sponsored by DeWalt. Look at this thing.

This is cool.

I need one of these.

What's behind door number two?

More wood.

But we're seeing bees now.

Yeah.

And I'm seeing a little bit of honey, too.

Well, one of the things that you can see,

so you can see other scat, which is the number one way bees get

into cavity, is that something like a squirrel,

will make a nest first and do all the,

like, grunt work to open up the space.

And then the bees will come in after they move out.

All right, so what would your analysis here

be?

Well, I think first, I want to go further down.

OK.

So we'll go further down till we stop seeing the comb.

Guess how many times I've been stung so far?

Zero.

Pretty impressive.

Little bee party going on up here.

There we go.

We are home free.

You guys ready?

Here comes the reveal.

Whoa.

Wow.

Look at that.

You know how we have regulations for hallway

sizes and doorway sizes?

They have the same thing. OK.

That's called bee space.

It's about 3/8 of an inch.

Well, as you can see, we have successfully-- and by we,

I mean Luke-- has successfully cut away all the wood

to expose a massive hive.

The comb, you can see, is hanging vertically,

almost like honeybee icicles.

Our next step is to cut apart a piece of the comb

and strategically place them into the bee box

that Luke is creating.

So this next part may get a little risky,

because he said if we're going to get stung,

this is likely where it's going to happen.

As you can see, we're not wearing any bee suits.

At this point, it's very unlikely we're

going to put them on.

So let's see what happens.

Should we see if I can karate chop any of those boards?

Got a good hold on it?

Yeah.

Thank you!

Thank you!

Oh, wow.

Look at that.

The way that it-- ooh, here comes the honey.

You can see the honey all kind of oozing down.

OK, here, you can tear that piece off.

OK.

If you don't see any eggs, that

means there's no queen laying.

I probably should have asked you,

but I already tasted the honey off of my glove.

Perfect.

It's your glove.

It's really good.

It's really good.

It's fresh.

Yeah, wow.

That is really good.

All right, so what do we do with this piece?

So let's get a frame.

OK.

Frame it up.

Did well on your measurements.

Fits right in there.

You got stung yet? - No.

Me, neither.

Look at that comb.

Wow.

All right.

Nice cut right there, too.

Look at the job Luke did on that.

So yeah, definitely no sign of the queen yet.

Yep, I got it.

I did get my first sting.

- You got stung? - Yeah.

On the back of the head.

Oh, back of the head.

Not even on the arm.

All right, we've got one official sting.

You didn't even make a sound.

Beautiful.

Look at that gold coloration.

So they lay drones.

Right now in swarm time, again, it's

like the last queen's goodbye.

And then in times of surplus.

So it's not just like a regular occurrence.

You can see that guy really struggling

to get out right there. - Oh yeah, right there.

Which is that's a huge part of their process.

They don't help them at all get out.

Yeah, if you don't get out,

you don't make it.

No time for the weak.

Ooh, got stung.

You got one?

Yeah, man.

I'm good.

Ah, yeah.

Almost halfway through.

Halfway through, and so far only one sting.

Oh, getting another sting!

On the hands?

Yeah, my arms are getting stung.

They're coming out.

I think I got a big piece of it.

See there on my arm, there?

Whatever's happening here, it's stinging me.

You get hit again?

Yeah. - Yeah.

We did it. We got it.

We got it.

I'm going to hand it off to you.

Got it?

Oh, that's a sticky one.

Oh yeah.

That guy right there, he's just wedged in place.

Woowee!

Ah, you forget how much a bee sting will smart.

But it makes it worth it when you're going after glove honey.

Good.

I'll take a glove full of honey for a couple of honey

bee stings any day of the week.

So the best for stings, are you familiar

with the plant plantain?

Not like a banana.

It's also known as white man's foot.

And you chew up the leaf.

It's like-- it's a weed you find in your grass.

You chew up the leaf in your mouth,

and you just, like, put it on your sting

or put it on your arm.

Really?

And it is like nature's neosporin.

No way.

My gloves taste delicious.

What can I tell you?

All right, we're going to the top of the comb.

I'm feeling there are more stings coming.

Look at that one.

That's crazy.

Look at all that honey in there.

I don't know this one's even going to fit in the frame.

What a piece.

OK, look at that.

You know how they say the bees can sense fear?

Do you think that's true?

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah?

Well, they're really like--

barometric pressure, like we talked about.

But they're also very sensitive to electromagnetic wavelengths.

So right, your heart's just beating faster

is going to do that, so.

So do you think this is a good example

of not being afraid of bees?

I think a very good example.

Because I feel like they're all around my face

and I feel pretty calm for the most part.

Even though we are digging out their hive.

Not many stings.

All right, you got the next piece ready?

Yeah.

This piece, I'm ready to cut from the top.

OK.

I can't twist my arm any further than that.

There we go.

There we go.

That is the crown jewel.

Whoa.

That's the big one.

Wow, it's covered in bees.

Wait what's that right there?

Oh, hey now.

Hey, don't get your fingers all sticky there, Pooh Bear.

He keeps sneaking honey, Mario.

OK, now we can look for the queen on here, OK.

Will she be here?

Probably not, but this will be the spot for her.

Got lots of drones.

Now.

I've tasted no honey so far.

I've resisted the urge--

Yeah, me, neither

Oh yeah, sure.

I mean, honey's so good for you, too.

And especially when you're eating local honey in your area,

right.

Like, that helps you fight against allergies.

Is that true or is that kind of like--

Yeah, it's true.

I mean, it's all in how much and what do you consume,

your dosage, right.

But it is because there's little bits of pollen and processed

pollen that act as just a little bit of information

in your system to manage, right.

Well I can tell you this much, pillar honey is delicious.

Ah, it's dripping everywhere!

That is solid honey and comb.

Almost completely solid honey.

That's heavy.

We almost didn't get it out of here this complete

because it started to crumble on itself.

That's just pure bee food right there.

That one we are going to preserve for the bees.

Ah.

See, I was about to take a bite of it.

We've only been stung a handful of times, which is fantastic.

Even with this many bees all in our faces,

we feel completely safe right now.

Have not yet found the queen, but we've

done an excellent job of getting each and every piece of comb

out of this hive.

All right, Luke, I think we're down to our last couple pieces

here.

And then we're going to try the honey.

And this will all be tastier honey, because you can see

it's all just scraps left over from bits of the comb

that we were not able to get out.

Well, Luke, we did it.

We successfully removed thousands--

probably close to 30,000?

Probably close to it.

Out of that pillar.

So tell us, where do the bees go next?

So the bees are going to go back to my home apiary.

I will manage them there, let them have--

reattach all this comb that we kind

of messed up in the process.

And then once they're fully established,

I'll move them out to a different apiary.

OK.

So these bees will successfully be relocated and back out

into the wild, where they're going to continue

to pollinate and make sure that we

as humans have plenty of food.

Because without the bees, we wouldn't have our food, right?

That's exactly it.

I got to tell you, Luke, when I woke up this morning,

I did not expect that rescuing 30,000 bees

was going to be a part of my day.

But thank you for the wonderful education.

OK, Luke has prepared some choice cuts of comb.

And you have Mario and Trent ready to try them.

All right, Trent, you're going to go first.

So I can just eat the whole thing, right?

I believe so.

Luke, you can eat the whole thing, correct?

I mean, it feels like it's just fresh out of the oven.

Here we go.

I've already been trying this all day.

I call it fresh out of the pillar.

Oh my gosh.

This is crazy good.

I'm going to have to, like, power wash my beard,

because it's all up in my beard already,

but you can't get candy like this.

On a scale of 1 to 10 with other honeys

you've tried, where does this rank?

11.

An 11?

Pillar honey is an 11?

This honey goes to 11.

Unlike Trent, I didn't sneak any licks.

I attempted to lick my finger, but it

ended up being actually just bee poop,

so I didn't eat the honey yet.

So I'm looking forward to it.

Sir, I present you with fresh pillar honey.

Which is the biggest one?

I think I'm going for this guy.

Nature's candy.

Oh my god.

Wow, he took the whole thing in one bite.

It's going to be a tough one.

Oh my god.

That's delicious.

Yoink.

Got another one.

Hey, hey!

All right.

I know you've already had a whole bunch, so--

Well, I still got to have one with the comb.

All right, here.

All right, you hold that.

Oh man, I'm still chewing.

This is the real deal right here.

I mean, I've been licking my gloves all day,

but this is grade A choice back of the comb pillar honey.

Woo!

It's a hot little golden nugget.

Here we go.

All that hard work was worth it.

R2-D2's gone haywire, bro.

This is some really good honey!

It's really good.

I give it like 100 out of 10.