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Why do bees die when they sting you? (2021)

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Re: Why do bees die when they sting you? (2021)

#221

Post by majgr »

cryptonector wrote: post #166
cryptonector wrote: post #109

Honeybee queens are the only honeybees with stingers that don't die when they sting. That's because the queen bee's stinger has no barbs, and the reason for that is that the queen must not die easily, and she must use her stinger, so if she's going to survive at all her stinger has to not have barbs. The queen almost certainly has to use her stinger when she exits her cocoon: to kill ther other queens that are about…

BTW, when I get stung, if the stinger doesn't get stuck I sometimes don't even notice till much later -- this happens when I get stung through my gloves. If the stinger does get stuck in my skin the first thing I notice is the buzzing of the bee that stung me. The frequency of the buzzing of the bee that stung me and that is trying to rip off the stinger is absolutely terrifying because I know what comes next: a doze…

What I noticed is that pitch of buzzing is higher when bee is attacking, not after sting. Higher pitch means probably higher frequency of wings, so bee has more velocity and it is more nimble. When I was kid visiting frequently a place with 100 hives in a summer. I started to recognize that pitch of attacking bee and learned to keep head lower, between arms. Sometimes I was chased by a bee several tens of meters. It is good to use cover of some trees or bushes. I believe bees are aroused by smell of venom itself. Sometimes, when hive is opened, bees turn their abdomen higher, towards opening showing stings. I think I saw that drops of venom forms around end of sting. Smoke particles, probably bonds to venom vapors, neutralizing its influence on other bees, because after couple smoke puffs venom smell is not noticeable any more. Also, smoke causes bees to change their process, from „intruder alert”, to „tree is burning”, and are turning on ventilation. Each summer, first sting swelled the worst, but consecutive ones were less so, so I think some tolerance develops, but it won’t last a year. The worst is being stung in fingertip, because it causes nail deformation, for some time.

Re: Why do bees die when they sting you? (2021)

#222

Post by majgr »

cruftbox wrote: post #125

Hobby beekeeper here. Worker bees dies when they sting a person, because the stinger and venom pump remain when they fly off, ripping their abdomen open. The purpose of this is that the venom pump continues to function after they have left, making the sting as painful as possible. Honeybees are a superorganism, where the survival of the colony supersedes the survival of any individual bee.

Sometimes I observed how it worked after being stung by a bee. It is better to remove sting using force from one side. When two fingertips are used to remove a sting all venom is being pushed into the wound.

Re: Why do bees die when they sting you? (2021)

#223

Post by mirzap »

leobg wrote: post #220

They can actually survive if you let them. Here’s a video of a guy filming himself being stung by a bee, then watching as the bee spins around, works its stinger loose, and flies away: https://youtu.be/G-C77ujnLZo

Bees don't die right away; they all fly off after stinging, but they will eventually die for sure.

Re: Why do bees die when they sting you? (2021)

#224

Post by apopapo »

This entire article is flawed in my opinion. Bees are not "suicidal". They are not meant to die after they sting. It's just that they have not adapted to stinging mammals with elastic skin (and probably will not). Bees can absolutely live after stinging if they manage to dislodge the stinger from the skin.

Re: Why do bees die when they sting you? (2021)

#226

Post by wruza »

enugu wrote: post #188
wruza wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine taking your favorite fractal and picking a random point in one of its non-trivial regions, trying to explain what happens there. Would you be better satisfied by or by specific step by step calculations that lead to that neighborhood? Either way, now imagine taking not your favorite, irregular, non-describable, non-computable, enormously complex processes-driven fractal that is the real nature, then picking a…

This is an interesting analogy, thanks. But, doesn't this match the parent comment's point? If someone asks why a particular point and not, a nearby point is on the fractal, the reply is just that complicated program generated this number and not another number. It leads to the theme of incompressibility (is there a program of smaller length which can correctly check whether a point in a given region is on the fracta…

This analogy doesn’t really answer it, it only shows that there’s no generic answer. So “fittest” basically means “the result”. It’s a definition, not explanation. But it is used instead of “the result” because we have some insights into how it was calculated, and we know that the nature simply creates {mi,bi,tri}llions of variants and then some minuscle amount has better chances to pass and mix these genes, outplaying others in this game. That’s where fittest comes from. Any attempt to explain it fully meets with a local complexity, in which only high-level questions can be answered in the same limited high-level manner. So there is some compressibility, but it’s clearly jpeg. Cause if a whole planet of distinct particles would strictly follow some rule to compress the observations into, it would be a rule of physics, not biology. E.g. why do animals fall to the ground? Due to gravity, here’s , works for all particles.

Re: Why do bees die when they sting you? (2021)

#227

Post by wizzwizz4 »

cryptonector wrote: post #168
wizzwizz4 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're careful with the index fingers of opposite hands, you can remove the stinger from your skin without killing the bee.

Not really. The bee that stings you will flap her wings very vigorously, and it will rip its stinger off in less than a second trying to get away from you. Unless you're deliberately trying to get stung and save her, you won't have a chance.

Depends on the colony. The bees that have stung me have always taken 5 or 10 seconds to start trying to dismantle themselves in earnest, which (depending on location) is usually enough time to rescue them. (I'm not sure whether they survive my rescue, but at the very least they can fly away, and their stingers don't remain in my skin.)

Re: Why do bees die when they sting you? (2021)

#228

Post by credit_guy »

cryptonector wrote: post #109

Honeybee queens are the only honeybees with stingers that don't die when they sting. That's because the queen bee's stinger has no barbs, and the reason for that is that the queen must not die easily, and she must use her stinger, so if she's going to survive at all her stinger has to not have barbs. The queen almost certainly has to use her stinger when she exits her cocoon: to kill ther other queens that are about…

For some reason I was never afraid of bees. I have a cousin who keeps bees, and she showed me a bee hive once. Neither of use used any masks or gloves. I remember when she showed me the queen, and I was pointing at it to make sure I got it right, she told me to not touch her, because then the other bees will sense the foreign smell on her and will kill her. In any case, I was surrounded by thousands of bees, but none stang me or my cousin. There's some urban legend that bees smell you, and depending on the smell they decide to attack you or not. I suppose I drew the lucky lottery ticket.

Re: Why do bees die when they sting you? (2021)

#229

Post by cryptonector »

jimmaswell wrote: post #196
cryptonector wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BTW, when I get stung, if the stinger doesn't get stuck I sometimes don't even notice till much later -- this happens when I get stung through my gloves. If the stinger does get stuck in my skin the first thing I notice is the buzzing of the bee that stung me. The frequency of the buzzing of the bee that stung me and that is trying to rip off the stinger is absolutely terrifying because I know what comes next: a doze…

Why are bee stings such a common occurance to you? Are you a beekeeper?

I am.

Re: Why do bees die when they sting you? (2021)

#230

Post by cryptonector »

majgr wrote: post #221
cryptonector wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BTW, when I get stung, if the stinger doesn't get stuck I sometimes don't even notice till much later -- this happens when I get stung through my gloves. If the stinger does get stuck in my skin the first thing I notice is the buzzing of the bee that stung me. The frequency of the buzzing of the bee that stung me and that is trying to rip off the stinger is absolutely terrifying because I know what comes next: a doze…

What I noticed is that pitch of buzzing is higher when bee is attacking, not after sting. Higher pitch means probably higher frequency of wings, so bee has more velocity and it is more nimble. When I was kid visiting frequently a place with 100 hives in a summer. I started to recognize that pitch of attacking bee and learned to keep head lower, between arms. Sometimes I was chased by a bee several tens of meters. It…

Oh for sure, they do buzz differently when they are in protec/attac mode.
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