Eli5 do bees and wasps know what they can’t sting?

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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

5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

I got this off Google, but maybe try asking the lovely people in r/beekeeping also.

Technically, the nitrile gloves do not protect from stings. They are thin and the bees can definitely sting through them, however because of the nature of the material the bees usually rarely attempt to sting them. When I wear leather gloves, defensive bees will readily sting.

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