Again, if you leave bees alone, or smoke them out before dipping your hand into their hive, they’re essentially harmless. Well, to avoid offending the bees in their care, beekeepers use smoke to interfere with the bees’ ability to communicate with one another. What about beekeepers? How do they brave the risk of hundreds – if not thousands – of single stings? After all, their work makes them a direct threat to the honey bee as they’re essentially invading the bees’ home and robbing it of resources. If you leave bees alone, they'll leave you alone, though they're more than capable of defending themselves from predators. And, should you experience a sting, the odds of an extreme response are reportedly low at around 5 to 7.5% for most people. It’s simply not worth the hassle for a bee to sting you most of the time. When the bee tries to pull away, the trapped stinger will tear from the bee, resulting in the bee’s death.
This is because the stinger of a honey bee is barbed which means it can get stuck in a person’s skin or an article of clothing. What’s more, if you’re dealing with an actual honey bee and not a creature of chaos and mayhem like the wasp, odds are you’ll only be stung “once” per bee. If you casually walk past a bee doing its thing on a flower, leave it alone and it’ll leave you alone. You see, the truth of the matter is that bees will only sting you when they feel threatened, as any beekeeper will attest. Playing the new indie release from VARSAV Game Studios, Bee Simulator, I was able to see things from a different perspective. Not necessarily the pain aspect, but the unlikely allergic reaction that could occur. Unlike spiders whose mere presence feels like a dire threat, my fear of bees stems from the risk of being stung. Whenever one flew near, I’d panic and race off, not bothering to check whether the bee was actually in pursuit.