Bee Vs Hornet: The Double Interview You Don't Expect

1) Introduce yourselves. A: 'Angie, apis mellifera'. C: 'Camillo, wasp crabro'. 2) Define your relationship. A: 'We are in a complicated relationship'. C: 'She'd be a nice girl too, if she didn't have all those hang-ups. Pacifism, environmentalism, peace love and music... Go, take the nectar, do your duty and go back to the hive, without too many fantasies." 3) Are you for or against pesticides? A: 'Are you kidding? Against all my life! By now it is well known that neonicotinoids are very harmful to us bees, so much so that the European Union has approved a ban on the use of the active ingredients (imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam), which are widely used in agriculture, and are only allowed in greenhouses'. C: 'Against, but Coldiretti states that almost half of the foreign honey in Italy comes from Hungary (8.5 million kg) and China (3 million kg): it is not acceptable that imports are allowed to circumvent the regulations in Italy and Europe'.

4) Who gets most angry when you fight with each other? A: "Him! He would even be ready to eat me. In fact, his mates often eat mine. I am zen, used to self-control: if I sting then I die, so I prefer not to sting. I care about life!'. C: 'Me, I admit it. If I get a blood clot I can't resist. Sometimes I even call my companions to give me a hand with their sting. We bumblebees, unlike bees, can sting several times and we do it often and willingly'. 5) Which of you is more beautiful? A: 'Beauty is an overrated concept. I am against the mythicisation of aesthetics, we bees are worth what we have in our hearts and souls'. C: 'Me, of course! You're an inch and a cap taller than my fellow bumblebees. Count Charlize Theron against Salma Hayek: no contest'.

6) The strangest place where you have made love. A: 'Well, we bees believe in free love, actually. So our queens go to mating places, where the philosophy is a bit that of, er, 'ndocojocojo!" C: "We are serious guys, instead! Each queen mates with a male from another colony. My mother told me she did it with her mate on top of an outdoor water heater, on a balcony in Milan. After all, we prefer high floors, that's also where we make our nests'. 7) Your biggest regret. A: "My life is too short to discover all the wonders of the Earth". C: "Not having had that wretch stung by spraying a noxious weed killer". 8) Give each other advice. A: "Take it easy!" C: "Look for a more modern stylist. That brown fur coat that's so Seventies is out of fashion. That way, you'll never find a husband."

9) What animal would you have liked to have been, had you not been a bee and a bumblebee? . A: 'Maybe a dolphin, to experience the thrill of swimming in the waves, free, with the scent of saltiness on you'. C: "Seesee, always poetic, you! I would like to be a lion, the king of the jungle, so that I could gobble up all the bees...er...I mean gazelles, that I want!" 10) For or against the liberalisation of cannabis?. A: 'I'm in favour of anything that takes business away from organised crime'. C: 'And we're still talking about it? Every night I have a joint. It promotes sleep after a hard day'. 11) The best day of your life. A: 'I was still a scavenger, I had to clean the cells and a forager friend took me along to suck the nectar from the mallow flowers. There I realised that I wanted to be an explorer!". B: "Today, before I meet useless people like you, who ask me these silly questions.

12) A film character who inspires you. A: 'Well, you already know that. Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft: beautiful, but tough! I peace how she trains to get stronger and stronger, like me'. C: 'The Big Lebowski: a lazy guy who doesn't do a c...., but has a lot of fun. Like me, but woe betide anyone who disturbs me near the nest'. 13) If you could meet Trump, what would you say to him? A: "You wretch, why didn't you sign the Paris Agreement to fight climate change that is damaging the planet?" C: "There is no point in talking to him. I would take action. I'd just be undecided whether to prick him under the cob yellow toupee or on the tongue that makes him say all that crap." 14) What is your relationship with the opposite sex? A: "Drones are too clingy. I am my own and I get annoyed by those who would immediately want to convince me to be a nurse. First I have to see a bit of the world!". C: "The females? I need them. What did you understand? I need their sting".

15) One word to say what you think of humans. A: "Naive". C: "Imbeciles". It was an intense interview, there was no shortage of twists and turns and we also learned a lot about these two seemingly similar insects. Well, it has to be said that they also agree on many things, especially the way they see humans. But their attitude towards life is radically different. And what do you see yourself in the most? Are you a bee person or a bumblebee person? And most importantly, are you for or against the liberalisation of cannabis?