The Only Animal Steve Irwin's Daughter Is Afraid Of

Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin was, for a guy who basically wrangled dinosaurs for a living, a man with a solid head on his shoulders. He knew what risks were acceptable, and which ones were essentially spitting in God's eye. That's why he avoided parrots like the screaming, feathery assassins that they are. He wasn't stupid. Yes, it's true — Steve Irwin was terrified of parrots. 

Now, fourteen years after Irwin's unfortunate passing, Irwin's daughter Bindi has become, in many ways, the face of the Irwin family legacy. Like her old man, she also has one non-starter animal: bees. Any number of bees. In an interview with People, Bindi Irwin recounted, "When I was about 2 years old, I found a bee that had been stepped on on the foot path, and so I picked it up to rescue it, and it stung me on the hand ... From that day forward, I've been terrified of bees."

A healthy fear of bees isn't a bad thing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that between 2000 and 2017, an average of 62 people were killed in the United States alone, each year, thanks to hornet, wasp, and bee attacks, with a combined total of 1,109 fatalities.

Though bees are currently struggling against a mass decline — which is equally dire news for humanity — it is true that bees are, at their very core, body horror monsters. Their potential deadliness lies in their stingers, which separate from their bodies when they attack, but continue to pump venom into their victims, pulsating like terrifying barbed Kali Ma hearts. According to Penn State, they also release a stream of pheromones that alert other bees in the area to your presence, letting them know that there's prime stinging real estate in the area. Hornets and wasps, meanwhile, retain their stingers after an attack, allowing them to keep stinging and stinging for as long as it takes for them to get bored with your screaming.