Be careful picking squash/gourd/pumpkin flowers!

[applestar]

I was picking yesterday's male flowers to put in my omelet, then noticed that the pumpkin vine was trying to grow in the wrong place. I lifted up the vine and a strange creaking sound came out. Startled, I lowered the vine, then tried again... creeaaak...

It was too early in the morning and my befuddled brain couldn't process it. So I left the vine where it was and started to walk away, and I got a "vibrate" cell phone call in my hand... except I didn't have a cell phone in my hand What I had in my hand was a handful of pumpkin flowers.

Bemused, I stared at my hand for a minute, until it dawned on me -- A BEE! A BEE MUST HAVE SPENT THE NIGHT IN THE FLOWER AND IT'S TRAPPED!!! I dropped my handful of flowers

As I watched, one of the flowers was bouncing around on the ground At this point, I was NOT going to help it escape the flower. I just picked up all the flowers that were quietly lying on the ground gingerly picked up the, now loudly buzzing flower and threw it over the fence!

The omelet was delicious

[cheshirekat]

Too funny!



But, then again ...

Awwww, poor bee!

[hendi_alex]

Reminds me of a childhood experience at about 10 years old. My dad showed me how to catch a bumblebee by pinching the end of a morninglory shut while the bee was inside gathering nectar. Sometime later I decided to try the trick for myself. Pinched that flower shut and that angry bee stung me right through the side of the enclosure. Thumb swelled to double or triple size. Never tried that trick again! Dad neglected to include all of those precautionary statements like are included with products and television tricks seen today. He should have said [if you are dumb enough to try this too, you might get stung.] Not to mention the adverse effect on the poor bumble bee that was simply going about his business. Dad taught me a lot of neat things, this was not one of them!

[mbaker410]

My brother and I used to catch bees in the flowers of honey suckles. We spent hours doing that and never got tired.

Mike

[JennyC]

Sounds like you had a big bee, Applestar! That's happened to me once or twice, most recently Sunday, but I didn't even know I had a bee until I had the flowers in the house, in the colander, rinsing. I guess the bee didn't like getting wet! Anyway, I smuggled it back outside in the flower and let it go. I hope it could find its way home; it was a honeybee.

My flowers were good, too (in salad). I'll have to try the omelet.

[rootsy]

Was cutting zucchini last night and one of the male flowers was buzzing.. slit it with the pocket knife and 2 bees popped out and off they went...