Why do bees die after they sting you? - Big Questions - (Ep. 41) | Mental Floss

Hi, I'm Craig. My mom thinks I'm bee-utiful. I die when I sting you, and also I am buzzed right now

And this is Mental Floss on YouTube. Today I'm going to answer Leo Vigildo's big question

Why do bees die when they sting you? So not all bees do this. Duh, guys. I'm going to tell you which ones do. Let's get started

Hi, how are you? How are you doing? Bees that sting you and then die are honey bees, and they're always female 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 honey bee stinger is barbed. It has little hook-like things all over it, so once it's inside you, it's kind of stuck there as if it's been screwed into your skin

That's lovely. When the honeybee's ready to fly away, it tries to pull out its stinger, which gets caught

So instead the bees 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 why it dies. Fun fact, when an animal does a form of self-amputating like this, it's called autotomizing

So basically if you thought it was bad that you got stung by a bee nope it worse You got 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 on your skin If someone offers you a venom sac you say no

This is only the case when honeybees sting humans, by the 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 that 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. bad. When one of them does, part of his genitalia gets ripped off in the process. That's bad

Oh, there's more! 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. Bumble bees, 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