"Don't step on the bees!" - this is the slogan of July 10

"Don't step on the bees!" - this is the slogan of July 10. Today is one of the most unusual holidays in the calendar, started by the British.

Indeed, the amazing little creatures that are so important to our environment deserve to be respected and protected.

You already know that the bee is the only insect that has been producing food for humans for at least 150 million years, and honey is the only product that contains all the substances necessary for life.

The bee is a pollinator whose role in maintaining biodiversity is crucial. Every third mouthful of our food depends on bees.

These two facts are more than enough to respect bees.

But how would your attitude toward these insects change if you learned that bees are capable of emotions such as optimism, frustration, playfulness, and fear, and can experience symptoms similar to PTSD?

They can also recognize human faces, process long-term memories during sleep, and possibly even dream. Bees are self-aware, problem-solving, able to think and imitate the best among themselves. They can even have a primitive form of subjective experience. These are the conclusions of a long-term study by scientist Stephen L. Buchmann from Arizona, USA.

In his book, "What a Bee Knows: Exploring the Thoughts, Memories, and Personalities of Bees," published in March 2023, the scientist claims that bees can also die due to psychological stress caused by cruel practices of industrial agriculture.

Stephen Buchman is not the only one. 

"If someone had told me 30 years ago that bees could have states similar to emotions, I would have thought it was a crazy hippie idea," says Lars Chittka, who has worked with bees since 1987 and is a professor in sensory and behavioral ecology at Queen Mary University in London.

Chittka is the author of the 2022 book, "The Mind of a Bee."

"These unique minds, no matter how different they are from our own, have as much reason to exist as we do," Chittka says. "It's a whole new aspect of how weird and wonderful the world around us is."

And a few more amazing facts from the life of a bee, which you may have known, but today it is worth remembering:

• When a bee takes on a new job that a younger bee would normally do, its brain stops aging, so humans use them to study dementia.

• Bees can cry. They understand when their family dies, and the queen is the last to die: she holds on as long as at least part of her bees live.

• Bees know how to heat and cool their hive to maintain a temperature of 93 to 95 degrees year-round.

• Bees are neat and meticulous; they defecate outside the hive. Most leave the hive when they know it's time to die to avoid contaminating the brood and feed.

• Croatian scientists from the University of Zagreb are teaching bees to recognize landmines. Insects are trained to associate the smell of any explosive with easy prey and, therefore, find the shortest way to it, acting faster and safer than specially trained dogs.

A lot can be said about these little workers who support the human race on their wings.

Just respect them and protect them. Like the whole incredible surrounding world!

Information from open sources.