Taiwan abuzz with tale of live bees feeding on woman’s eye

A young Taiwanese woman received the shock of her life when she sought hospital treatment for a suspected eye infection and doctors extracted four live bees that had been feasting on her tear ducts. 

The 29-year-old, identified only by her surname He by Taiwan’s CTS news channel, said she had assumed that sand or dirt had flown into her eye when it became swollen, streamed with tears and she felt a stinging pain that would not subside when she washed it. 

In what is believed to be a “world first”, doctors at Taiwan’s Fooyin University Hospital described in a press conference how they had then spotted the small insects crawling around her eye socket during an examination. 

Head of ophthalmology, Dr Hung Chi-ting, had been expecting to find cellulitis and keratitis – a bacterial skin infection and the inflammation of the cornea – but instead saw tiny, moving legs. 

“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,” he said. 

The creatures were identified as sweat bees, which are not normally aggressive or prone to sting but are attracted to human perspiration and may have been confused by the woman’s tear ducts. Also known as Halictidae, they are found all over the world.

Dr Hung said the species nested near graves and fallen trees, cautioning the public that the chances of coming across them while hiking in the mountains were high. 

Ms He told reporters she had been tidying a relative’s grave during last week’s Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day, when families clean the final resting place of their ancestors. “I was squatting down and pulling out weeds,” she said. 

Despite the skin-crawling discovery, her doctors said she had been lucky. If she had rubbed her eyes when she felt pain the insects could have died inside her eye, causing more serious issues or even blindness. 

Ms He has been discharged and is expected to make a full recovery.