It occurred to me that bees and wasps might not be able to tell the difference between materials when they are about to sting. Do they try to sting things like metal or wood or are they able to detect skin somehow? An example would be if someone decided to hit a hive/nest with a baseball bat. The person would definitely get stung, but would they also attack the bat?
A related follow up question is whether they would suffer any adverse effects if they did try to sting something hard. I would guess they don’t have the strength to break or damage their stinger, but if you know please enlighten me.
In: Biology
Nope. If they think something is an enemy of the hive, they’ll sting it. I was once taking apart a bald-faced hornet nest. Little basties were coming out and stinging the stream of poison.
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