wasp queen and workers can each sting you several times but a bee can only sting you once. As all of the stings have barbs on them, how can this happen?
1
-
$\begingroup$ Your question is unclear. You seem to have partially answered your question (bee stingers have barbs while wasp stingers don't) . What do you mean by "how can this happen"? $\endgroup$– WYSIWYGCommented Jan 9, 2019 at 10:31
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
It's not true that all stingers have barbs. Wasps, and many other species, don't have barbed stingers, and therefore they can afford to sting you repeatedly without being killed. Worker bees, on the contrary, have a barbed stinger that gets stuck in your skin.
Although wasps have a more powerful venom than bees, with bees usually the venom sack remains attached to the stinger and will keep pumping venom even after the bee itself has run away and died, causing the sting to be more painful. However, because bees died after stinging, they are less likely to sting you compared to wasps, hornets, yellow jackets and bumblebees.
