Today, another caller asks, "Do all bees sting? Which ones do? Do they die afterward?" As someone who has studied bees and wasps, this is one of my favorite things to talk about. It's going to be a good episode!
So you're driving in your car and OUCH! Suddenly, you see that a small yellow and black striped flying insect has stung you. What if I told you it might not even be a bee? What if I told you that most of the time bees don't sting? What if... it was actually a yellow jacket?
What does all this mean!? I have spent a lot of time formally studying bees. Did you know that there are around 20,000 species of bees in the world? And that in North America, there are 4,000? Today I am talking about the evolution of bees from wasps, how the stinger evolved and why, and why did bees go vegetarian? If you've had a close encounter with an insect that has stung you, this will be particularly interesting to listen to. Maybe you can do some detective work and identify your culprit. If you haven't been stung, you are most people!
To learn more about bees and wasps, follow me on Instagram where I post fun facts about bees and share information.
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