wasp v bee sting apparatus

[bontbee]

With wasps being a hot topic at the mo, I was reminded of a question which I couldn't answer...

Can anyone suggest why wasps have evolved a needle like sting, which they can use repeatedlyu, compared to the "barbed" bee sting which keeps "burrowing" into mammalian* flesh, resulting in the bee being mortally wounded?

*I am assuming here that other mammal skins, eg bears, badgers, retain the sting as ours does...

What is the evolutionary advantage of dying to sting? ta

 

[oliver90owner]

Wasps are carnivorous, so attack. Bees are defensive so don't attack as a norm.

So wasps can sting a prey repeatedly to subdue it while working independently. Bees rely on mutiple stings from multiple bees, all available close to the hive and the venom continues tonpump into the target even aftervthe bee has gone.

so the simple answer is attack and defense.

 

[bontbee]

Hi Rab, thanks for the reply, however:

I didn't think wasps - at least the social ones - use their stings to kill their prey when hunting. I understood that they tended to grab "passive" prey, for example caterpillars and aphids. (The parasitic wasps do use their sting to immobilise prey, but don't usually kill it.)

Related to the above, I understood that social wasps mainly use their stings for defence, too.

I can see that stings retained in flesh, with the venom sac still pumping away, could have a more significant effect, but wasps can sting till they empty their venom sac - and still fly away....

 

[Headnavigator]

I noticed after some stings last week (poked the bonfire pile and infuriated some wasps) that wasp stings felt very different to bee stings. They produced a similar red, swollen, itchy reaction but the stings themselves felt different - more painful - and there was an unpleasant underlying burning feeling which persisted. After a couple of days of burning/itching I happened to be stung several times by bees on the same (still swollen) arm. Immediately the burning and itching ceased and I didn't even suffer the usual itching following bee stings, it all subsided quickly. I'm aware of the acid/alkali difference but was surprised that there was such a subjective difference.

 

[fincaazul]

At a winter meeting the speaker, whose name I can't remember, touched upon this subject. He said that there are small barbs on wasp stings and the reason the wasp can remove the sting without losing it, is that the Tergite plate holding the sting is much more strongly attached to the abdomen of the wasp than is the case with bees.

 

[REDWOOD]

I have had repeated wasp stings and the effect is nothing compared to a single bee sting, bee stings are acetic and wasps are alkaline, it's just the way god made them

 

[bontbee]

Hi Fincaazul - that sounds interesting. Any chance you could find out the name of the speaker and pm me - or post it here. I'd be very grateful!


Hi Headn - thanks for your comment - I recall my mother using a blue bag (if you remember them!) for one and vinegar for the other - I presume to "neutralise" the sting - but can't remember which, having only been stung once as a child - by some unidentified insect.

Unfortunately/fortunately, I have only been stung twice by wasps - the first time it seemed worse than any bee sting, the second it seemed quite insignificant...

 

[bontbee]

thanks Redwood, I think I shall have to start a poll - which sting is worse?!

 

[REDWOOD]

Five Wasp stings to the head after poking around a hole in a bank and was left with five lumps, one bee sting above the eyebrow and I looked like Mike Tyson, and a few years later one on the chin and looked like Bruce forthsight and if you get one on the lip[ you will probably look like enrico