Why do bees die when they sting us?
We are out in the countryside, enjoying the clean air and the wonderful view. Suddenly, a bee lands on our hand and in our panic… zap, it stings us! Why?
This happens with female bees. What we call the stinger was in reality not designed to be used as a stinger. At least that is not its main function.
What is the stinger?
The stinger you speak of is a “device” for producing eggs! It is connected to a gland that contains venom inside the bee’s abdomen, so it can be used as a weapon and cause a painful sting!
The queen, who stings only rival queens, has a stinger that is smooth. In the event that she stings, it can easily come back out of the victim’s body. So the queen can sting many times. On the other hand, the stinger of female bees has “barbs,” so if it enters the skin of its victim, it cannot be pulled back out again! It gets “stuck” inside the victim’s body and it is impossible to remove!
What happens when a bee stings us…
When the bee tries to leave after the sting, the stinger separates from its abdomen along with the gland that holds the venom and part of its digestive system — terrible! The nerves of the venom gland continue to pump venom for 30 seconds after the bee has left. In this way the venom enters deep into the wound, causing the maximum damage it can cause. The bee, however, has no chance of survival. Having lost vital organs, it dies after a short while! It is a very strange defensive weapon, since it cannot be used unless the bee sacrifices its own life!
Essentially it is an act of suicide on the bee’s part. If each bee lived for itself, this would not be a very clever means of defence, but bees live for their nest and not for themselves — that is what you call teamwork!!! The real purpose, in other words, is not to attack us if, for example, we hit them with a newspaper, but to protect their nest from its enemies.
Consequently, the bee’s stinger is not an offensive weapon but a defensive one. And not for self-defence but for the defence of the nest. And it is used to ensure the survival of the species.
So that bees don’t sting us…
So that bees don’t sting us, we can do something very simple! When a bee lands on us, quite simply, we should not react! Often panic sets in and we make the bee feel threatened, with the result that it stings us! What we should do is not react at all! We should stay calm, not move, and wait for it to take its little stroll over us. This way, you will see that it will not sting us and will fly off after a little while — remember that!