Hi I’m Craig, my mom thinks I'm bee-utiful, I die when I sting you, and I'm buzzed right
now and this is Mental Floss on YouTube. Today, I’m going to answer Leovigildo Santos’s
big question, “Why do bees die after they sting you?”
So, not all bees do this. Duh, guys. Today, I’m going to tell you about which ones do
and why. Let’s get started! Bzz
Hi how are ya? How you doing? Bees that sting you then die are honeybees. And they’re
always females because males don’t have stingers. That’s because the stinger is
actually an ovipositor -- an organ that female insects have for depositing eggs. I have a
refrigerator for depositing eggs and I die every time.
In addition to being an ovipositor, the honeybee’s stinger is barbed. It has little hook-like
things all over it. So, once it’s inside of you, it’s kind of stuck there as if it
had been screwed into your skin. That's lovely.
When the honey bee is ready to fly away, it tries to pull out its stinger, which gets
caught. So, instead, the bee is forced to leave it behind along with muscles, glands,
a venom sac, and part of its digestive tract. And that's a great way to lose weight and
life, because that's how it dies. Fun fact: when an animal does a form of self-amputating
like this, it’s called “autotomizing.”
Basically, if you thought it was bad that you got stung by a bee...nope it’s worse:
you have bee guts all over you. And, make sure to remove the stinger if you get stung.
Because that venom sac that the bee left behind is not a good thing to have in your skin.
If someone offers you a venom sac, you say no
This is only the case when honey bees sting humans, by they way. If they happen to sting
an animal or insect with thinner skin than human skin, they’re strong enough to pull
out their stingers and move on with their lives.
If you think that female honeybees get the bad end of the deal here, it turns out that
the life of a male honeybee, or drone, isn’t so good either. I mean, they're called drones,
doesn't sound good. They pretty much exist to mate with the queen, that doesn't sound
bad. And when one does that, part of his genetalia get ripped off in the process, that's bad.
Then, his abdomen gets ripped open and he dies.
Speaking of the queen bee, she DOESN’T have a barbed stinger -- hers is smooth, which
means she COULD sting people multiple times without dying. But, she doesn’t ever leave
the hive after mating. She only gets the chance to use her stinger when she’s trying to
assert dominance over another queen.
But that’s just honey bees. Bumblebees, solitary bees, and wasps are able to pull
their stingers out after stinging humans. Also Sting is able to and he has, many times.
I'm told.
Thanks for watching Mental Floss on YouTube, which is made with the help of all these honey
bees. If you have a Big Question of your own that you’d like answered, leave it below
in comments. See you next week!