Bees found living in woman’s eye

Four “sweat bees” that had been living in a Taiwanese woman’s eye
were removed by a doctor who described his surprise at finding a “leg
with hair, protruding from the eyelid”.

The bees found in the Taiwanese woman’s eye

The tiny insects, which are just three milimetres (one-tenth of an
inch) long, were discovered after the woman — known only as Ms Ho —
sought treatment for an itchy and swollen left eye, Dr Horng Chi-ting
said.

“I think the Halictidae mistook the eyelid for an armpit,” he told
AFP, using another name for “sweat bees” that are attracted to sweat,
adding it could be the first case of its kind worldwide.

Horng looked closely at the woman’s streaming eye and “was surprised
to find a back leg with hair protruding from the eyelid. I didn’t know
what the insects were,” he told AFP.

He then sent the insects to a professor at National Taiwan University for identification.

The 29-year-old woman’s ordeal began when she was out weeding her
ancestors’ graves at the end of last month and felt a gust of wind blow
something into her eye, Horng said.

“Luckily the Halictidae didn’t attack her eye and they were removed relatively quickly,” he said.

“She thought the itching was caused by her contact lens and did not
rub her eye. That would have crushed the poisonous bees to blind her,”

It took Ms Ho three days to recover, Horng said.