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Asked by Abbie' to Daniel, Freya, James, Miranda, Usman on 15 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by guinea pig sniffles.
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Daniel Hewson answered on 15 Jun 2015:
The stinger of a bee is barbed and stays inside the victim. The bee pulls away leaving behind the stinger and the venom sac which are torn out of the bees abdomen. It would be like having your guts ripped out! Wasps do not leave their stingers behind and can go on to sting again.
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Usman Bashir answered on 15 Jun 2015:
Don’t tell me you didn’t know this already ! 😛 Well honey bees disembowel themselves coz their stingers are more like harpoons and they get stuck under the victim’s skin so when they pull out .. they’re only left with their skin!
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Freya Wilson answered on 16 Jun 2015:
Actually, female worker honey bees are the only species of bee to die after stinging. Male honey bees can’t sting. And queen bees can sting multiple times if they want to (though it is very rare they would leave the nest). Not only that, but they only die after stinging if the thing they are stinging has sufficiently thick skin- so humans and other large mammals.
Bumblebees very rarely sting humans but can sting multiple times too, same with hornets- a type of wasp.
The reason why honey bees die is because their stinger has barbs on it, which means that it gets stuck inside, and when the bee leaves the stinger is still stuck and rips off some of the bee’s body and muscles and nerves. This loss causes the bee to die a short time later.
The barbs are like tiny needles arrange so that they will go into something easily, but the needles catch if you try to pull it back the other way.
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James Gilbert answered on 17 Jun 2015:
Well I just learned something new from @Freya.. never knew queen bees could sting multiple times!
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