• Question from:Wayne

Hi,
My Mom was stung by a carpenter bee last Friday.  Aftter the sting the bee stayed on the flower for three days almost motionless.  It seemed that she might be in shock. Finally, she started staggering a little bit, still stunned, and on the fourth day flew away.

Is this normal?

Thanks!

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  • University of Exeter
  • Posts: 1,011

That's pretty unlucky to be stung by a carpenter bee, they are known as being less aggressive than more social bee species. Note that people often think bees die after they sting, but this is only true for honey bees not all species.

Is the bee's behaviour normal? I don't think we can answer that I'm afraid since (as far as I can tell) nobody has ever really studies post-stinging behaviour in this group. My hunch - and it is just that - is that if the animal was not moving from the spot,  may have been recovering more from whatever caused your mother to be stung (e.g. handling, some accidental physical trauma to the insect) than to delivering the sting itself. That's just a hunch though - I have nothing to back it up!