Honey Bees and Other Stinging Insects

Honey bees – An introduction

Honey bees are one of the most important pollinators for flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Pollinators are insects or other living creatures that transfer pollen between the male and female parts of plants. This allows plants to form seeds and fruits.

Honey bees, like their name suggests, are buzzing insects famous for making delicious honey! Honey bees live in groups in special structures called hives or colonies. The members of the hive are divided into three types: the queen bee , the worker bees , and male bees (or drones ). Each hive contains a single female queen bee, around 60,000 worker bees, and a few hundred male drones.

In a bee hive, the queen bee mates with drones and lays eggs to give rise to the next generation of bees in the hive. These eggs hatch and the larvae develop to either form drones or worker bees. The purpose of drones in a hive is to mate with the queen bee. The worker bees, however, have a variety of tasks!

The worker bees

All the female honey bees, apart from the queen, are worker honey bees! The average worker honey bee lives for approximately five to six weeks. During this time, worker honey bees are responsible for foraging for food, building and protecting the hive, cleaning the hive, and circulating air in the hive using their wings.

How exactly do worker bees protect the bee hive? Worker bees are like the soldiers of the colony and have the special ability to sting if necessary! Honey bees sting by using a stinger which is located at the tip of the abdomen . This structure is pointed like a needle and has two rows of saw-toothed blades, which are spiny in shape.

Bees may sting because they are confused, injured, or threatened, and stinging is their only means of defending themselves. However, after a honeybee stings, it dies a terrible death. Why do honeybees die when they sting?

Because of the unique structure of the stinger, it is left behind when the bee pulls away. The honeybee ruptures its lower abdomen and also leaves behind digestive material, muscles, glands, and a venom sac.

Insects that sting

Apart from honey bees, what other insects use stinging for defending themselves? In the United States alone, around 700 species of ants, 35 species of bees, and 30 species of wasps are known to sting! Each year, more than a half a million medical emergencies are caused by insects that sting.

Apart from honey bees, some of the insects which sting include

1. The Bumble Bees,

2. Wasps,

3. Hornets,

4. Ants.

Wasps living in groups, such as the yellow jackets, and paper wasps are known to sting. Solitary wasps may also sting, such as the cicada killers, potter wasps, sand wasps, and mud daubers.

Lastly, a few species of ants, such as the fire ants and red harvester ants, are also able to sting.

How to avoid getting stung in the late summer and early fall when the colony workers are especially busy? Do not swat at such an insect! Instead stay calm, carefully retreat, and let the insect fly away.

Flesch Kincaid Grade Level: 7.8

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Glossary

Pollinators: insects or other living creatures that transfer pollen between the male and female parts of plants

Hive: a dome-shaped or boxlike structure in which bees live

Queen Bee: the head of the bee colony; responsible for laying eggs

Worker Bee: the female bees, apart from the queen bee, which have many tasks and do not mate

Drone: the male bees in a bee colony that are responsible for mating with the queen

Stinger: a pointed needle-like structure that has two rows of saw-toothed blades, which are spiny in shape

Abdomen: the posterior-most portion of an insect’s body

References

“10 Facts about Honey Bees!” National Geographic Kids, 17 Nov. 2022, https://www.natgeokids.com/au/discover/animals/insects/honey-bees/.

Christiansen, Anna. “Why Do Honeybees Die When They Sting?” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 1 Oct. 2014, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/honeybee-sting-kill-bee.

“List of Insects That Sting: Types of Stinging Bugs.” Orkin, Orkin, 9 June 2022, https://www.orkin.com/pests/stinging-pests/guide-stinging-insects.

“Why Do Bees Sting?” The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, https://www.childrensmuseum.org/blog/why-do-bees-sting.