Only honeybees die after stinging, but not bumblebees or wasps. A honeybee’s barbed stinger is actually attached to its abdomen. When this stinger lodges in the flesh, and the bee tries to escape, the stinger is ripped from its body, tearing off most of the bee’s belly (along with a nerve ganglion, various muscles, a venom sac, and the end of its digestive tract), and the bee dies of the injuries.
Although the self-inflicted fatality of the honeybee’s sting lacks the individual consciousness and premeditation to truly be considered kamikazelike, you still have to admire that take-one-for-the-hive esprit de corps.
And research also indicates that it’s only in old cartoons that bees chase you around the countryside, their swarm taking the shape of a harpoon or large pub dart.
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"Do bees die after they sting people?" was posted on Thursday, November 15th, 2007 at 11:18 pm.