Basically, the worst fate in the universe is to be covered in bees. Nothing so small should cause so much fear amongst creatures so much larger... and yet they do. The distinctive coloration. The horrible buzzing noise. The danger of stinging. The way they move in swarms. The kamikaze mentality. And of course, if you're allergic or if there are a lot of the little bastards, they can put you in the hospital or even kill you.
Subtropes include Bee Bee Gun. Related to Gosh Hornet. If a monster or person is made of bees, then they're The Worm that Walks. Often seen in the Hornet Hole. Sometimes overlaps with Everything's Worse with Bears because bears like their honey.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Pokémon: Vespiquen's Attack Order move summons a bunch of Combee to attack the foe.
Beedrill is actually the wild Pokemon that has attacked Ash the most. Not to mention the fact that they attack in massive swarms and are 3'03".
From InuYasha, there's the Saimyoushou, the poisonous insects Naraku uses for spying on the heroes and weakening Miroku whenever he uses the Wind Tunnel.
In No. 6, the dark secret of the eponymous city is that parasitic bees/wasps are propagating and killing people
Batman: An Amazon attack.. a deadly bee weapon. Bees. My God.
Veteran Justice League villain Queen Bee covers this trope.
There's an old Golden Age superhero called the Red Bee, who used not bees, but a single trained bee, to fight crime. He is generally regarded as a joke character these days.
His successor, his grandniece Jenna, sort of made up for it by using battle armor and two big robotic bees that fire lasers.
Calvin hates bees and hornets, and has been known to throw rocks at their hives. When he was stung by a bee, the incident became exaggerated in his memory:
Calvin's Mom (applying ointment): I don't see the "harpoon" that "gored" you, but this will help the sting.
Calvin: Call the National Guard. I'm sure they can track the bee on radar.
This is how Dubbelosix and his handler Surreptitius are put to death in Astérix and the Black Gold.
In Little Nicky, Adrian proves to the crowd how evil he is by bringing out Henry Winkler and covering him in bees. Later, Nicky has to do something bad so he can get back to hell, so he also covers Winkler in bees.
The title character in Candyman is revealed to be little more than a skeleton inhabited with the bees that stung him to death originally. With Tony Todd's head, making things scarier.
Vada and Thomas jump into a lake to escape from a swarm of bees in My Girl. Unfortunately, Thomas doesn't manage to escape from them later on, and dies from an allergic reaction to the stings.
In Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, the kids are visited by a bee while climbing a flower. They wind up riding it around the yard, and are nearly killed when Wayne swings at the bee with a bat.
The X-Files: Fight the Future revealed that domesticated bees are being used by the Government Conspiracy to spread a deadly virus that turns living humans into breeding tanks for homicidal aliens. All it takes is a single sting from their bee to make a Grey emerge from your body chestburster style. Oh, and The Syndicate can remotely control their bees, too. Sleep tight tonight.
A bumblebee was the cause of Mistaken for Racist in National Security. It started when the black security guard who at first suspected of stealing a car gets attacked by a bumblebee, which he's allergic to. The white cop swings his nightstick around to shoo it away only to make it look like a racial beating which was caught on tape before he was convicted and sent to prison.
In Save the Green Planet!, the protagonist douses a man in honey and then unleashes crates full of bees. Guess what happens.
In The Hunger Games, the protagonist Katniss kills an opponent by dropping a hive full of tracker jackers (mutated bees) onto her.
Literature
Stephen King's novel The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon features a horrible bearlike monster that follows the protagonist through the wilderness as she wanders in search of some safe haven. The creature frightens her when she first sees it, but then she realizes — horror of horrors — that it is made out of bees.
Same creature has an envoy that appears to the protagonist in a dream. A humanoid, robed being with clawed hands and a face made, you guessed it, of wasps.
It's not made of bees, it's a bear covered in bees.
An early example: In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz the Wicked Witch of the West sends a swarm of deadly bees after Dorothy & Co., which they defeat by (no, really) disembowelling the Scarecrow and having all the "meat" characters hide under the straw, while the bees break their stings off on the Tin Woodman and die.
Inverted in Douglas Coupland's Generation A, where bees have supposedly gone extinct and everything's worse without them.
In an H.H. Munro (AKASaki) story called "The Story of St. Vespaluus", a boy is condemned to be stung to death by bees. It doesn't work out that way.
The season two premiere of Pushing Daisies had a woman who claimed she was killed by a man made of bees, which caused Chuck to ruminate on the possibilities of teaching her bees to form a human shape.
There was an episode of Smallville called "Drone", where a girl had the power to control bees, using them to attack people she didn't like.
One of the first episodes of LOST had Charlie standing on a beehive and eventually breaking it ("It wouldn't be an irrational fear of bees if I could just pull myself together, would it?") causing people to run and take off their shirts ("It was, um, it was full of bees." "I'd have thought C's, actually.").
Adam Savage of Mythbusters has a fear of bees. One myth tested involved hypnosis and its effects on fear responses, which, among other things, had Adam dipping his hand into a box of bees.
In The X-Files, genetically modified bees cause all kinds of problems.
Second City's 1995 mainstage show was called "A Pinata Full of Bees." Note that Second City's titles tend towards either really bad Puns or just plain Word Salad Titles.
Dane Cook lampooning the idea of killer bees: "It's a fucking bee! I could understand if it was like killer horses! That's scary shit!"
Tabletop Games
Dungeons And Dragons has had, in several versions of its bestiary, various forms of stinging insects. Among these is the mantis-armed, mecaque-headed MONKEY BEES.
There's also a monster that's basically an anthropomorphic bee, though that might be something of a subversion since the bee people are not in fact evil.
Battle Tech features Humongous Mecha named after stinging insects, including the Wasp, Hornet, Stinger, and Firebee. The 'worse' is relative, as while they're still at least twenty tons each and rather dangerous to infantry and light vehicles, they are Light Mechs with rather little in the way of armor or offensive weaponry compared to their far larger brethren. Of the four designs named, only the Firebee proves to be much of a threat due to being nearly twice as big and twice as well armed as any of the other three.
Video Games
The Pain from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, who harnesses the power of bees to create guns and transport grenades... as well as just soaking you in bee pheremones and letting the little monsters go to work.
It was actually mostly hornets, but the bees did the special work.
One of BioShock 's plasmids includes the ability to attack enemies with bees, also there's a part in the game where you have to be in contact with overgrown beehives.
In Mega Man X 3, Blast Hornet, based on a hornet (duh), sends small homing robot bees to target you. The Charged Attack of his weapon lets X do it too.
In Mega Man Zero 3, a beehive sub-boss does this, throwing an oily substance to the walls and then at you for its bees to chase on it.
Then in Z4, a boss replicates the strategy above, throwing a substance that makes your ground movement slippery and then bees home on you; this boss is not bee-based however.
Mega Man ZX Advent has Queenbee, who carries a massive panzer hive that has missile launchers, small bees, and two different types of laser attacks.
Mega Man 9, which was released last (though is chronologically first) has Hornet Man, who sics robo-hornets on you. His weapon is arguably better than Blast Hornet's, as the hornets treat Mega Man like their "queen" alternately attacking like one-use Beats and bringing items back to him. Some loose items can only be retrieved this way. And they're even cute!
Animal Crossing has bees chase you if you shake down the wrong tree. You can catch the bee if you're very quick, but if not, you end up with a swollen face that your neighbors will remark on.
Spore: The Galactic Adventures expansion introduced the summon swarm ability, and the Cute and Creepy expansion had the bee swarm emote.
An optional challenge path was recently introduced: Bees Hate You. Wandering bees attack you randomly, you can't use items or familiars that have a "b" in them, equipment with a "b" will hurt you, and monsters with a "b" in their name are stronger. And the final boss is naturally The Guy Made Of Bees.
Arakune from BlazBlue has a curse mark. Once you are hit, bees will come from the screen and begin the assault.
In A Link to the Past, you can catch bees that will attack nearby enemies when released. There is also a "good bee" that, if caught, will chase your enemies around and murder them.
There's one boss that becomes much easier this way. Go bees!
They can be quite nasty in Skyward Sword, but they can be useful if you catch them in your bug net.
Metroid Prime 1 and 2 have War Wasps, very annoying giant stinging insects that tend to come in large numbers and respawn untill their hives are destroyed.
There's even a miniboss in the original Metroid Prime, the Incinerator Drone, which is a robot that attacks by blowing flames at you and disrupting a hive over it that sends out Barbed War Wasps that attack you.
Earlier in the game, the Hive Mecha is the home of several Ram War Wasps. Releasing these is its only attack, but considering that you have only one Energy tank, and your platform is in the middle of toxic water and it's hard to get back up on if a wasp rams you in, it's enough. And you have a window of time between one swarm and the next to damage the Hive Mecha.
If that doesn't scare you, perhaps this will: Hibachi's latest incarnation (aka "Zatsuza") is currently the most probable contender for "Hardest Video Game Boss in Existence".
Donkey Kong Country and it's sequels have Zingers as enemies, giant bees in multiple varieties that appear all over the place in levels. Many serve as bosses too, and that one in the terrifying chase scene in Donkey Kong Country 2...
Kingdom Hearts II has a minigame where you must defeat the flying demons in Twilight Town.
Re: Kingdom Hearts Chain Of Memories'' has a minigame in the Hundred Acre Wood (Well where else would we get bees in this game?) where you must get Pooh honey, while keeping the bees from attacking him.
Also a mod for the flamethrower that changes the fire effect into a swarm of bees, complete with the proper sound effects.
Super Mario Bros. 2 has Beezos, which are basically flying Shyguys with tridents.
Paper Mario has the Bzzap! of Flower Fields, which has two attacks: its normal sting, which has an Attack of 6 and may poison Mario; and it may summon five smaller bees which each try to sting him for 1 Attack each and may make him tiny (reducing all his attacks to 1). However, it has 0 Defense and only 3 HP.
One of the more annoying enemies in Toe Jam And Earl was a swarm of bees who would follow you everywhere. If you tried jumping into water to avoid them, they just hovered over you.
Kingsley's Adventure had Gustav The Grave, who was a bear who could summon bees to attack you. Bees AND bears. Strangely, this game had a lot of sharks too, though most of this is due to the game being centred on animal characters...
In Midway's old skateboarding game 720 Degrees, the announcer says "Skate or Die!" when the game's timer runs out. Take too long, and then a swarm of killer bees appear, and if your skater gets hit by the bees, then it's an automatic game over. The longer you run from them, the more their speed increases, until they inevitably catch up with you.
The "Sting" spell in Secret of Evermore summons a small swarm of bees on a foe for a non-elemental attack. It's fairly average strength-wise, but it's notable for its alchemist being fairly well hidden in a desert.
In the later stages of Banjo-Kazooie, you'll encounter honey hives protected by bees, who will sting you if you break the hive. They have a maximum attack radius, but can only be defeated if you turn on your invulnerability when they attack you.
The beehives in the "Diggin' It" and "Bee-Having" levels in Crash Bandicoot 2. They only let out one bee in Diggin' It, but in Bee-Having, they can let out up to five.
Bug! had bee enemies in Insectia and Splot. Being Airborne Mooks, they were incredibly annoying to fight- some of them even appeared out of nowhere to ambush Bug! (See here for an entire area filled with them)
Fallout New Vegas has Cazadores, which are giant mutant Tarantula Hawks and one of the most terrifying Demonic Spiders of the game just under Deathclaws. While relatively fragile, they are damn fast, making them difficult to target outside of V.A.T.S. They also happen to be poisonous so you'll be losing health like crazy if they get close. And they swarm in groups of 4-6.
The main area in Infocom's Trinity includes a giant hive of man-size bees. They won't bother you if you don't bother them...but unfortunately the plot requires you to steal honey from them, leading to immediate death if you're not careful.
Katherine Blanco from Survival of the Fittest dies after a severe allergic reaction from a bee sting. Mr. Danya is less than sympathetic.
Danya: Sometimes, kiddos, you don't have to wait around for the competition to kill you. Some of you are so imperfect that Mother Nature decides to do it herself.
The second death in v4 is similar in nature, where Dallas Reynolds is stung by a wasp and gets an allergic reaction. Unfortunately, he tries to give himself more room to breathe... by tugging at his explosive collar.
On The Simpsons Lisa temporarily has a beard of bees while searching for a new home for them. Marge freaks out over them.
Subverted in another episode. Homer has a giant sugar pile and is initially annoyed when a swarm of bees lands on it ("Oww! Oh, they're defending themselves somehow!"). However, the beekeepers arrive and offer to buy all the sugar to get their bees back. Unfortunately for Homer, a flash rainstorm melts the sugar and disperses the bees before he gets paid.
And again in a third episode, Bart is trying to help Lisa prep for an obstacle course, and she ends up hanging by her foot right next to a beehive. This was before the above 'bee-beard' episode, and in this instance, Lisa is terrified of being so close to their hive and helpless.
Smithers: "I'm allergic to bees, sir. They cause me to, um, die."
"THE BEE BIT MY BOTTOM! NOW MY BOTTOM'S BIG!"
"Or what? You'll release the dogs? Or the bees? Or the dogs with bees in their mouths, and when they bark they shoot bees at you?"
"Hey Willie! Catch the football!!!" *Nelson lobs the bee's nest at Willie*
Donald Duck was ocassionally bugged by generic bees in the Classic Disney Shorts. It got to the point where a new bee character, Spike, was created to co-star with Donald in 6 shorts. This trope is subverted in the last one of those, as Donald and Spike finish the picture as good friends.
Curiously, the very last Donald cartoon with bees shows him as the rightful owner of a bee farm, and no he suffers no assault from them in the whole short.
Though Donald had to deal with Humphrey the Bear, who wanted the honey and suffered the wrath of the bees AND Donald.
One entire episode of Futurama, "The Sting", revolves around an attempt to get space honey from space bees, bees who are "as large as a Buick and twice as ugly."
In the Ruby Gloom episode "Hair(less) the Musical," Misery demonstrates how a picnic is worse with bees by jamming a honey stick into a beehive, causing the bees to swarm onto her face and sting her viciously. It's made creepier by the fact that she's mid-song when this is happening, and never breaks the tune.
Real Life
The Japanese Giant Hornet kills more people a year than any other animal combined.
Deborah, the sole female Judge of Ancient Isreal, has a name that means "bee".
Hymenoptera, the order of insects that includes bees, wasps, and ants, is responsible for more lethal attacks on humans than any other animal.
Three words: Africanized honey bees. They are like European honey bees, but twenty times worse. Overly defensive and easily provoked, they will whip the entire hive into an angry frenzy and chase down a single person for over half a mile.
Carpenter bees (specifically Eastern Carpenter Bees) demonstrate that not everything is worse with bees. Although gregarious, carpenter bees do not live in colonies like other bees (the time you would find more than one carpenter bee is if you were near their nests). Despite their large size and the scary noises their wings make, they are mostly passive and non-aggressive (unless they're seriously provoked). Although the males are slightly more aggressive (usually around other males), the best they do when a human approaches their territory is is hover a short distance in front of the face or buzzing around one's head. Since males have no stinger, these action are merely show. The females (who do have stingers) rarely use them. In fact, the killing of carpenter bees is now strongly discouraged since they serve an important function in pollinating plants. Regardless of these facts, many people still kill carpenter bees and destroy their nests because they regard them as a mild nuisance as well as their close resemblance to bumble bees, which happen to be more dangerous.
Most species of Australian native bees either have no sting or have a sting that is too small to sting humans with.
Accidents where lorries shed their loads on the road are bad enough but during an accident in Idaho the load in question was 400 beehives resulting in a cloud of 14 million bees being released, which resulted in every member of the team that responded to the accident being stung, though none suffered any serious side effects. The authorities are also worried the honey may attract bears too.
Though bears do eat honey, it would be far more likely they would be attracted to the brood, as that is what bears are usually after when they attack a hive
The New Orleans (originally Charlotte) Hornets basketball team.
