Despite being a friendly face as a pollinator that helps crop reproduction all over the world, bees have a side of them that can prove to be quite… stingy.
Bee Weapon
I am, of course, talking about the bee’s stinger, located on their bottom.
Laced with a venom, bees use these stingers to fight off would-be predators or other threats to their hives. These stingers are barbed too, to be as effective as possible in delivering its payload to its target. The only problem is that it is more than likely that a bee that tries to escape after stinging will be unable to do so because of the barbed stinger. As a result, the bee effectively disembowels itself while attempting to escape and dies as a result.
On its own, the venom that comes from the sting of a single honeybee is but a nuisance. Yes, you are very much likely to experience sharp pain, swelling, redness, and itching on the site of the sting, which can also be exacerbated depending on how long the stinger remains lodged in your body. However, other than a temporary welt, you are very much unlikely to develop complications, much less have said complications become fatal to you.
Extraordinary circumstances?
This, of course, only applies to people who are lucky enough to only be stung once. Depending on your circumstances, you may be stung by two or more honeybees. If you’re truly unlucky, you may have a swarm or even an entire hive’s worth barreling down towards you. A single bee is usually no problem to deal with, but having more present can be an issue, especially if their buzzing around may effectively lock you off an “escape route”.
Can a human body handle it?
Surprisingly, yes. In fact, the average adult’s body can take 1100 bee stings. Children and elderly folk, on the other hand, can only really take around 500.
But there is a caveat here: This is not a proper baseline and should not be taken as such. Even if the average human adult survives because they only took 1000 bee stings, it leaves out the fact that these stings will have likely caused untold damage to the skin and multiple internal organs to the person, potentially leaving them crippled and vulnerable to opportunistic bacteria and viruses that are looking to take over the body.
Not only that, but because there is no “true” measurement on the potency of a bee sting, it can vary wildly on different people. One or two bee stings may be enough to put certain people’s lives in danger. On the other hand, 400 stings won’t even be enough to make a person sneeze.
While it isn’t possible to determine exactly, there are a few ways that one can measure how well a single person might be able to handle a bee sting, which can include:
-Size of person (Smaller people are more vulnerable to bee stings and more likely to experience an allergic reaction)
-Age of person (The elderly and children are the most vulnerable of the age groups)
-Current health condition of the person (Are they currently sick or impaired in some way or form? Are they taking any medications?)
-Any previous health issues (This also includes allergies, and exposure to bee venom in the past)
-The bee species (Some bees have a more potent venom than others)
-How far embedded is the stinger in the person (A stinger that is “fully inside” the skin has injected much more venom than a stinger that barely breached the skin)
-How much bee venom was injected to the person (Partially dependent on the above as well, but it also counts how many bees stung you and how much venom accumulated as a result)
As you can see, there are multiple factors that show how much a person can tolerate a bee sting. Obviously, an immunocompromised person will be much more vulnerable to bee stings due to their weakened immune system. In addition, a person is more likely to develop an allergic reaction to bee stings should they be stung multiple times.
What if you’re allergic to bee stings?
While a large population wouldn’t be deterred much by a bee sting or two, there are minorities who are potentially allergic to bee stings, in which case the scenario changes drastically.
If you’re one of those people who are allergic to bee stings, then you’re in very big trouble. Unlike the previous examples, you are very much unlikely to walk out of multiple consecutive bee stings unscathed, as even a single bee sting can be life-threatening. Fatal reactions are rare, however.
Life-threatening allergic reactions occur in 0.4%-0.8% of children. For adults, this rises to 3%. It doesn’t help that half of the people that experience severe allergic reactions to a bee sting don’t even know that they were allergic in the first place. In fact, it is entirely possible for one to live their entire life without knowing that they are allergic to bees, at least until they get stung by one themselves.
Conclusion
Alone, a single bee would be little more than a nuisance and cause welts.
But in a group, the combinations of poisons can cause severe damage to your body and organs, while also potentially causing you to become allergic to bee stings in the process.
This is why the best course of action to take when against bees is to turn away and head in the opposite direction.