I remember reading the bees actually have some of the deadliest venom in the world. It doesn’t do much harm to (most) humans (unless they’re allergic) because of the vast size difference between bees and humans. But mice are much, much smaller. Could a bee sting be deadly to a mouse?
It seems, at least based on the information at this URL, that bee venom is comparatively not all that toxic:
http://insects.about.com/od/insects101/f/most-toxic-insect-venom.htm
Real life mice are in the in range of 30-90 grams of body weight, and the mice in the comics seem to me to be on the larger size. If we take 90g as our body weight, LD50 (50% chance the dose will kill you) is 0.09 * 2.8mg = 0.252mg. I found an estimate elsewhere that a honeybee venom sac contains about 0.1mg of venom, so it would seem a single bee couldn’t take out a mouse, although several would be quite dangerous.
The most interesting discovery to me is that harvester ants would be much more dangerous to mice, although I believe they are not typically found in the range represented by the mouse territories…
There’s a few posts online of mice being stung to death by bees. Apparently mice like to nest in beehives in winter.
Ah, but what about heat death?
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2005/09/bee-heat-cooks-invaders-2/
Might not be able to get a sufficient bee-to-mouse-body-mass ratio before the bee-to-mouse-surface-area ratio is exceeded and they can’t pile on any heavier.
…But I though bees were mouse allies! :’(
Well, wasps can’t regulate their body temp like mammals.
Getting stung by a bee has got to hurt, though, even if not from venom. Very different stinger-vs-body mass ratio.
Go with the fictional imperative: injured or sick condition most but the time, but death could be on the line under the right (wrong?) circumstances.
You think sweating will save you from that? Even if so, I like it as a unique risk.