While many associate the single sting with honey bees, not all stinging insects follow this rule. Many insects within the order Hymenoptera, including bees, wasps, and ants, can sting repeatedly. Understanding these differences helps assess potential stinging risks.
The Single-Stingers: Honey Bees
Honey bees are the primary example of insects that typically sting only once. Their stingers are equipped with barbs, similar to a fishhook, which causes the stinger to become lodged in the skin. When a honey bee attempts to pull away, the barbed stinger, along with part of its digestive tract, muscles, and nerve ganglia, is torn from its body. This catastrophic injury results in the bee’s death shortly after stinging. The detached venom sac often continues to pump venom into the wound for several minutes.
The Multiple-Stingers: Wasps and Hornets
In contrast, many species of wasps and hornets can sting multiple times without dying. This includes common species like yellowjackets, paper wasps, and hornets such as the bald-faced hornet and European hornet. Their stingers are smooth, lacking the barbs found on a honey bee’s stinger. This smooth design allows them to easily withdraw their stinger after injecting venom, enabling repeated stings. Repeated stings can be particularly dangerous, especially if a nest is disturbed, leading to a larger quantity of venom and increased risk of severe reactions, particularly for allergic individuals.
Stinger Design: Why Some Sting Once, Others Repeatedly
The fundamental difference in stinging capability lies in the design of the insect’s stinger, which is a modified ovipositor, an organ used for laying eggs. Honey bee workers possess a barbed stinger, which anchors firmly in the skin, preventing withdrawal and leading to the bee’s death. This suicidal defense mechanism provides a strong deterrent to threats against the hive.
In contrast, wasps and hornets have smooth, needle-like stingers. This design allows them to penetrate a target, inject venom, and then easily withdraw the stinger, enabling repeated stings. This repeated stinging ability is advantageous for wasps and hornets for both defense and subduing prey. Many species are predatory, using their smooth stinger to paralyze insects or other small creatures for food. This difference in stinger morphology reflects their distinct evolutionary strategies for survival and reproduction.
Identifying the Culprit: Bees, Wasps, and Hornets
Distinguishing between honey bees, wasps, and hornets helps assess sting risk. Honey bees are typically round and fuzzy, with black and yellow or brownish-orange stripes and pollen baskets on their hind legs.
Wasps, like yellowjackets and paper wasps, have slender, smooth bodies with distinct black and yellow or black and white patterns. Yellowjackets often have bright yellow and black bands and are relatively small, while paper wasps are longer with muted brown and reddish-brown colors, often with yellow markings.
Hornets are larger; European hornets are brown and yellow, and bald-faced hornets are black with white or pale markings. Nesting habits also provide clues: honey bees build waxy combs in sheltered cavities, wasps construct open-celled paper nests, and hornets build enclosed, football-shaped paper nests.