Becoming the victim of a flying insect sting is no kind of fun. Many people have experienced that tear-jerking stinging sensation that accompanies an insect sting. However, some of you can count yourselves lucky for having managed to escape an insect, or a whole lot of them, with just one single sting. Some insects sting multiple times, whereas other insects only sting once. Many people claim that bees will die after stinging a human or any other animal, and this would be correct, but not in all cases. In fact, some types of bees can go right on living after injecting venom into animals.

For example, honey bees and Americanized bees (AKA killer bees), die after stinging their victims, or during any other situation when their stingers become detached. This is due to the barbed spines that are located on the stingers of these two bees. After injecting their victims with venom, the barbed stingers remain anchored below the skin, causing the stingers to detach from the bodies of these bees, which results in death.

Luckily for bumblebees and carpenter bees, their stingers are not barbed; instead, these two bee types have smooth stingers, which can be pulled from victims easily after injecting venom. Some bees are not to be feared by mankind at all on account of their non-penetrating stingers. Mining bees, which are often spotted flying around home-lawns, possess stingers that cannot pierce human skin. And you have probably been running from them your whole life.

Wasps and hornets, on the other hand, can sting multiple times with ease; not only that, but both wasps and hornets are far more aggressive than bees, which is probably why they can remove, and reuse their stingers. The amount of venom released by wasps is not great, as bees deliver more venom than wasps. However, hornets can deliver a significant amount of venom, which is believed to be around thirty micro-grams, but still less than the fifty micro-grams released by bees. Luckily, despite the fierce look of the hornet’s stinger, hornets are not as likely as wasps to use their stingers.

Have you ever been stung by any type of bee? If so, which type was it? Was it more painful than other bee, wasp or hornet stings that you may have sustained?

 

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