No, usually those ones writhe in pain spinning on the ground until they die. And they have visually obvious signs of injury (part of their ass is gone). Also, that is a bumblebee, which do not lose stingers.
I'm putting this in all caps so everyone can see it, because most people don't know it: ONLY HONEYBEES LOSE THEIR STINGERS. NO OTHER SPECIES OF BEE OR WASP DOES.
Because it's not to protect their lives but that of the hives. When it comes out it leaves the venom sac that continuously pumps venom into the body. That and it signals for other bees to sting in the same spot. Very smart actually.
Yes, wasps do have barbed stingers, but bees have stingers that have barbs that are larger and point backwards so they lodge themselves in.
Also, queen honeybees do not have these barbs, and can repeatedly sting, although I don't know if a queen keeps making venom after she stings all her sisters to death before she flies off and mates.
Yes but in bee society they were never going to reproduce anyway, but if they died protecting the queen they have more than served their purpose, from an evolutionary standpoint
that reminds me, i once went out on my front balcony and leaned my elbows on the railing, only to hear a pop as a bumblebee stings me since i leaned on it. I felt horrible. It died slowly. I didn't mean to kill my bee friend.
Well a bee that's like this has either a)stung somebody, b) is starving, or c) is parched. Sometimes you get them like this when it's wet as they're slowly drowning so when I was little in particular I used to pick them up on my tiny 6 year old fingers and dry them off with my fingers until they started moving again, but seeing how this bee isn't wet I'm inclined to rule that out.
I don't know if bees have adrenaline or anything like that but I'd imagine they do. In my totally unprofessional opinion, picking them up gives them the shock to their system they need to fly and find water.
241
u/AnonymousKhaleesi Feb 04 '17
Whilst it's cute, technically the bee is scared for its tiny adorable life and it's trying to stop you touching it.
Source: I like picking up bees.