WHICH BEES 'STING' AND WHICH DON'T?

A great many people are wary of bees because they fear being stung, but the truth is that bees are far more interested in going about their business foraging for pollen and nectar than they are in stinging human beings. Only in rare cases will a bee sting without being seriously provoked - and many species of bee don't sting at all.

Honeybees

Honeybees are equipped with a sting which they will use to defend their honey stores or their queen. They will also, of course, attempt to use their sting if they think you are threatening their lives by standing or sitting on them. 

The sting of a Honeybee (worker) is barbed, so it remains under your skin after it has pierced you. When the bee attempts to fly off her intestines are pulled out, so unless you can remove the sting without damaging it she will die. Honeybee queens can sting repeatedly, but as they spend almost their entire lives inside the hive, the odds that you will encounter one are fairly remote.  

It is worth noting that honeybee colonies have somewhat variable temperaments, from extremely docile to quite tetchy. This is down to genetics: certain crosses can be hard to handle, even by experienced beekeepers. The good news is that honeybees almost never sting anyone who is not close to their nest/hive, so don't worry about being stung whilst gardening or walking through a field.

You are less likely to be stung whilst honeybees are swarming than at any other time. 

Male honeybees have no sting

N.B If you have reason to think you may be allergic to bee venom, you should carry an Epipen



Bumblebees

Bumblebees are not naturally aggressive and it takes a lot to provoke them. They will only sting if their nest is threatened or if you squeeze them, sit on them, or stand on them. 

Buff tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) posturing

If they do feel threatened by you they will 'tell' you. They do this by raising one of their middle legs in the air. When you back away, they relax and put their leg back down again - but if you go closer (and if they are unhappy about this) they will lift another leg in the air. If you go closer still - they will lift two legs up vertically in the air and turn onto their back to show you their sting! This is called 'posturing' but very rarely leads to them actually stinging you.  If bumblebees DO ever sting, their sting has no barb like the honeybee, so they do not die afterwards.

Male bumblebees do not have a sting.  

You can identify the males of some species quite easily by their pale yellow facial hair and little yellow moustaches. Also, male bumblebees are in less hurry than the females when foraging and have thin hairy legs (females have a wide shiny, smooth, flattened corbicula on their back legs and are often carrying pollen)
I often stroke bumblebees (male and female) in my garden, or pick them up from pavements and roads to put them in safer places. None of these bees have ever stung me.

Tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum)

I should just add that there is one species of bumblebee, the Tree Bee Bombus hypnorum  who has a reputation for being  a little aggressive. As with any other bee, they will completely ignore you whilst they are out foraging, but this particular species is slightly more defensive in the vicinity of her nest than other bumblebee. More info about this bumblebee species HERE 

Leafcutter (Megachile centuncularis)

Solitary bees

There are over 240 species of solitary bee in the UK alone... and at least 20,000 worldwide! It is VERY rare for anyone to be stung by one of these bees. As solitary bees have no honey stores to protect, there is no reason for nature to have provided them with a good defence weapon like that of the honeybee. The females are equipped with tiny stings but rarely, if ever, do they use them. You would have to squash them to provoke them to sting - and even then, the sting on most of these bees is so insignificant that it cannot even pierce human skin.

There are just one or two exceptions. Although the effect is not as severe as a honeybee sting, our tiniest species of ground nesting solitary bee, Lasioglossum and Halictus, both have fully functioning stings capable of penetrating human skin and both can pack quite a punch.

As there has been a great increase recently in people putting up solitary bee nesting boxes (sometimes known as bee hotels or bee tubes) in gardens and public places, it is worth mentioning these. The bees that use these tubes are mostly solitary mason or solitary leafcutter bees. Although it is not unheard of for one of these bees to sting, it is extremely unlikely unless you are regularly handling them. 

None of the male solitary bees have stings.

N.B. If you have reason to think you may be 

seriously allergic to bee venom, you should carry 

an Epipen.

If you are not allergic (the majority of us are not) but you DO get stung by a bee, look for some plantain - chew it up a bit at the front of your mouth - and then spit the chewed up leaf and saliva on the sting.






Many thanks to Natural Beekeeper, Phil Chandler, of Biobees for his input on honeybees