• Question: When a bee stings you, do they know they will die?

    Asked by kkcrispy to Rupert, Ellen, Carrie on 16 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Ellen Williams

      Ellen Williams answered on 16 Mar 2017:

      I don’t think so. Only honey bees die on stinging humans and really if they are stinging you it is a last resort (as i understand it they don’t just sting for the sake of it). I think it would be a more basic defence function to them rather than a planned thought process. I may be completely wrong though!

    • Photo: Carrie Ijichi

      Carrie Ijichi answered on 17 Mar 2017:

      As far as we know at the moment, most animals don’t have a sense of their own life and death. In lots of ways that must be really nice. That means when a bee stings you as a last resort it has no idea that it will die and it won’t be suffering. The reason she will sting you (and they are all “she” if they’re honey bees) is because she is protecting her hive. They are all clones of her and share her DNA so she sacrifices herself to protect them but she doesn’t consciously now that it what she is going.

      Cool question

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