Despite the fact that they produce delicious honey and are vital to pollinating crops, honeybees still earn screams from those that fear their stings. They may not be considered cute and cuddly like other animals, but watching the first 21 days of a honeybee’s life is worth the 64 seconds it takes in this time-lapse video.

Rion Nakaya posted the video of worker bees developing from eggs to larvae to young adults at her blog The Kid Should See This. The video comes from photographer Anand Varma, who "worked with National Geographic and UC Davis’ Bee Lab to raise and document bees in his Berkeley, California backyard," Nakaya writes.

In at his TED Talk about bee development, Varma walks through the timelapse video and explains what happens. He focuses on another critter that makes an appearance in the video. The little brown mite sharing space with some of the developing worker bees is a varroa mite, a parasite that presents a major threat to honeybees.

For those who still harbor a lingering fear of bees: The insects not only help grow the food that sustains humans, but elite squads of honeybees can even sniff out land mines. That’s why they don’t deserve the ongoing trend of mysterious bee deaths — not content with inspiring wonder, bees can be life-saving.