Many people assume a bee’s only defense is its stinger, leading to the common belief that any aggressive action is a sting. While stinging is the primary defense for most social bees, the idea that bees never bite is a misconception. Bees possess mandibles, or jaws, which they use for a variety of tasks vital to their survival and nest maintenance. Biting is almost never directed at humans as a defensive attack.
The Physical Difference Between Biting and Stinging
The difference between a bee’s sting and a bite is rooted in two separate anatomical structures. Stinging involves the use of a stinger, a specialized, modified ovipositor found only in female bees. This organ is located at the posterior end of the abdomen and is designed to inject venom. For the familiar honeybee, the stinger is barbed; it lodges in the skin of thick-skinned mammals, tearing free from the bee’s body and causing the insect to die shortly after.
Biting uses the mandibles, which are paired mouthparts located at the front of the head. These jaws are used for mechanical work, such as grasping, chewing, and cutting, and they are not venomous. When a bee bites a person, the result is typically a minor, non-venomous pinch that causes no lasting harm. Worker honeybees use their mandibles in a unique defensive maneuver against small hive pests. They bite the pest and simultaneously release 2-Heptanone, a chemical that acts as a localized anesthetic.
Specific Bees That Use Mandibles and Why
Mandibles are used extensively across many bee species for nesting and foraging behaviors. Leafcutter bees are named for their use of jaws to precisely cut circular or oval pieces of foliage from plants. The female transports these pieces back to her nest cavity to line the brood cells where her young will develop.
Carpenter bees use their powerful mandibles as a drilling tool to excavate perfectly cylindrical tunnels, known as galleries, into wooden structures. This chewing creates fine sawdust beneath the entry hole, providing a secure place to lay eggs. Wallace’s Giant Bee, the world’s largest bee species, possesses enormous mandibles used to scrape tree resin. This resin is then used to waterproof and line its nest chambers within active termite mounds.
In some stingless bee species, mandibular use is adapted for an unusual diet. Vulture bees (Trigona) use their strong, specialized mandibles to tear off pieces of carrion, or rotting meat, from animal carcasses. These bees evolved with an extra tooth on each mandible and a unique gut microbiome to process this protein-rich food source for provisioning their nests. Mandibles also play a role in bee social dynamics. A newly emerged queen bee uses her jaws to cut her way out of her thick wax cell, and she may then use them to fight or dispatch any rival queens.
Confusion with Other Biting and Stinging Insects
The misconception that bees frequently bite defensively often stems from confusing them with other aggressive insects, particularly yellowjackets. Yellowjackets are wasps, not bees, and they exhibit more aggressive behavior, especially later in the summer when their diet shifts to scavenging for human food and sugary drinks.
Unlike honeybees, yellowjackets have smooth stingers that allow them to sting repeatedly without dying. Yellowjackets also commonly use their mandibles in conjunction with their stinger, biting to hold onto a threat or prey while simultaneously stinging. Their smooth, shiny bodies and narrow “waists” distinguish them visually from the hairier, rounder bodies of bees.