Honey bees are known for their industrious nature and their role in pollination, but also for their ability to sting. This defensive action is a biological process with unique adaptations and consequences for the bee.
The Barbed Stinger
A honey bee’s stinger is a specialized organ, primarily found in female worker bees, that functions as a defense mechanism. This structure is composed of a sharp shaft, or stylus, and two barbed lancets that move alternately to penetrate the skin. The barbs on these lancets are designed to embed securely into the thick skin of mammals.
When a honey bee stings, the barbed lancets saw into the flesh, pulling the stinger deeper with each movement. This design, with its backward-pointing barbs, provides one-way traction, making it difficult for the bee to pull its stinger back out once embedded. This firm anchoring is the primary reason a honey bee typically cannot sting more than once when attacking a mammal.
Life After Stinging
For a worker honey bee, stinging a mammal like a human carries a fatal consequence. When the barbed stinger becomes lodged in the skin, the bee cannot retract it. As the bee attempts to fly away, the stinger is torn from its body, along with several internal organs. This includes parts of its digestive tract, muscles, and nerve ganglia, leading to an abdominal rupture. The bee dies shortly after.
While the bee perishes, the detached stinger, along with the venom sac, continues to pump venom into the wound for a period, often between 30 to 60 seconds, which is why immediate removal is recommended. Only female worker honey bees possess this barbed stinger; male drone bees do not have stingers, and the queen bee has a smooth stinger, allowing her to sting multiple times.
Other Stinging Insects
While honey bees are known for their single, self-sacrificing sting against mammals, many other stinging insects behave differently. Wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets possess smooth stingers rather than barbed ones. This structural difference allows them to easily withdraw their stingers from a victim’s skin after injecting venom.
Because their stingers do not get lodged, wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets can sting repeatedly. This ability provides a different defensive strategy compared to the honey bee’s single-use, barbed stinger. Their venom also differs in composition from that of honey bees.