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Why do bees sting
Executive summary
Bees sting primarily as a defense—either to protect themselves when handled or to defend the hive against perceived threats—and the sting delivers venom that causes immediate pain and swelling [1] [2]. Honey bee workers usually die after stinging because their barbed stinger becomes lodged in thick skin and tears out part of their abdomen, a trade‑off that helps signal and defend the colony [3] [4].
1. Why bees sting: self‑defense and colony defense
Bees do not sting out of random aggression; the action is a defensive behavior triggered when a bee "feels threatened" or when the hive is under perceived attack—swatting, grabbing a bee, or getting too close to a nest commonly provokes stings [1] [5]. Multiple sources frame the stinger as a weapon used to protect the individual and, more importantly for social species like honey bees, to protect the colony from threats [5] [6].
2. What the sting does: venom, pain and immune reactions
When a bee stings it injects venom (often called apitoxin) composed of proteins, peptides and enzymes that damage cells and trigger inflammatory responses; that venom is the proximate cause of pain, swelling and itching at the site, and in a minority of people can cause systemic allergic reactions including anaphylaxis [6] [2]. Medical guidance stresses quick removal of the stinger and monitoring for allergic symptoms; severe reactions require immediate treatment [7] [8].
3. Why honey bee workers often die after stinging
Honey bee workers possess barbed stingers that can become lodged in thick‑skinned animals, including humans; when the bee pulls away the stinger tears out of its abdomen along with muscles, nerves and part of the digestive tract, a fatal injury for that individual [3] [4]. This grim self‑sacrifice is not universal for all bees—sources note the death typically occurs when the victim’s skin is thick enough to trap the barbs, and queens or some species can sting multiple times because of differences in stinger structure [9].
4. Alarm signals and the colony effect
Honey bees release alarm pheromones when they sting; those chemical signals attract and mobilize other workers to join defense of the hive, amplifying the protective effect of a single sting and explaining why multiple stings can occur in hive‑disturbance events [6] [4]. This social amplification shows how an apparently suicidal individual act supports colony survival—an evolutionary logic emphasized in multiple accounts [3] [4].
5. Misconceptions and limits of the “bees always die” rule
The widespread saying that a bee can sting only once is an oversimplification: it is true for many honeybee workers under typical circumstances because of their barbed stinger, but not true for all bees or all situations—some female bees (including queens) and many other stinging Hymenoptera can sting repeatedly [9]. Several sources explicitly qualify the myth and explain the anatomical basis of when death follows a sting [4] [9].
6. Seasonal behavior and perceived aggressiveness
People often report more stings or "angry" bees in late summer and early fall; reporting and pest‑management sites attribute this to life‑cycle changes in social wasps and yellow jackets and resource pressures—bees and wasps may appear more defensive as seasons change—though this mix of species and motivations means blame placed on “bees” generically can be misleading [10] [11] [12]. Available sources do not present a single, definitive scientific study in these results proving a universal seasonal aggression increase specifically for honey bees, so seasonal explanations should be treated as context and not settled fact [10] [11].
7. Practical takeaways and safety context
For the public: avoid swatting or grabbing bees, stay calm and move away from hives, and if stung remove the stinger by scraping rather than pinching to reduce venom injection [8] [12]. Clinically, most stings cause local pain and swelling; prompt medical attention is required for breathing trouble or signs of systemic allergic reaction, and specialists advise people with known severe allergies to carry and use epinephrine autoinjectors [7] [1] [8].
Limitations and competing perspectives: the sources agree on the defensive purpose of stinging and the anatomy behind honey bee mortality [1] [3], but differ in emphasis about seasonal aggression and species differences—popular pest‑control and clinic sites highlight seasonal behavior and resource pressure [10] [11], whereas scientific and clinical sources center on anatomy, venom effects and allergic risk [2] [7]. Available sources do not mention detailed evolutionary models quantifying colony‑level benefits of suicidal stinging beyond descriptive explanations (not found in current reporting).