Four bees invaded a woman’s eye and began drinking her tears.
The unfortunate victim believed she had an eye infection and visited her doctor.
Medics found the bees feeding on her tear ducts under her swollen eyelids.
The Taiwanese woman, 29, was surprised when they found the four bees embedded in her eye, feeding from her tear ducts, news channel CTS has reported.
The hospital’s head of ophthalmology, Dr Hung Chi-ting said at a press conference that such bees nest near graves and in fallen trees, so the chances of coming across them while hiking in the mountains are high.
The bees were extracted live from her eye.
The woman has been identified only by her surname - He.
She had been “visiting and tidying” a relative’s grave.
The victim said:” “I was visiting and tidying a relative’s grave with my family. I was squatting down and pulling out weeds.”
Assuming that sand or dirt had gotten into her eye, Ms He said that she cleaned her eye with water at the time.
However, she started experiencing a stinging pain and teared continuously.
At the press conference Dr Hung said: “I saw something that looked like insect legs, so I pulled them out under a microscope slowly, and one at a time without damaging their bodies.”
The insects were later identified as sweat bees, Apple Daily said.
Dr Huang said that even though sweat bees do not attack people, they are attracted to the perspiration of humans.
The doctor said it was good that the woman had not rubbed her eyes too much.
That could have worsened the state of her inflamed cornea, or in a severe case, could have led to blindness.
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Sweat bees – also known as halictidae – are small but not aggressive.
They can sometimes be observed in large numbers.
They have short tongues, which come in handy for lapping up human sweat, which has earned them their name.
A sting usually only occurs if a bee is pressed against the skin, and according to the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, a sweat bee has the least painful sting of all stinging insects.
However, sweat bees are attracted to perspiration and have a tendency to land on humans to obtain moisture and salts from sweat.
Ms He has now been discharged and is expected to make a full recovery.
Ms He was weeding around her relatives’ graves when the insects flew into her left eye.
She was visiting the grave as part of the annual Chinese Qing Ming tomb-sweeping festival, which is traditionally observed by sprucing up loved ones’ graves.
When a gust of wind blew into her eyes she assumed it was dirt that had entered, she told reporters.
