Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/23/watch-a-honey-bees-venom-sac-pump-venom-after-detatching.html
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I’d have wanted it out immediately.
oold beekeeper says: just don’t grab it between your thumb and forefinger to extract it as that’ll inject the remaining venom. Locate some edged tool and ‘shave’ it out (“That’s another function of a ‘hivetool’ m’lad”). Then, if you’re staying in the area, find someway to disperse the odor of the venom, or else you’re many times more likely to stung again - there’s formic acid odor which attract more bees to sting. (“That’s another function of the ‘smoker’ m’lad”) Anyway, if a honeybee stings you, it was your fault, as they’re all little buzzing angels [wink]
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Contributed by Popkin
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I’ve seen beekeepers flick them off with a fingernail. Never mastered that myself.
I was once stung on the head, and I swear I could feel the pain increase with each pump of the sting.
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That one detail is wrong – formic acid is something formicine ants spray and recognize as a signal to attack. But honeybees have a different alarm pheromone, separate from the venom itself. That way it can be released by alarmed workers to recruit help on top even if they aren’t stinging yet.
Isopentyl acetate is a major component, though I am guessing they need others to respond, since that’s also fake banana flavor.
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Look at my banana muffin.
Just look at… bzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ 
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There are lots of components in honeybee venom; many are small acids, formic acid among them.
just one random source
The acids present, which include formic, hydrochloric and orthophosphoric acids, are now believed to be much less important in causing pain than was previously thought.
formic acid, being about as small an organic acid possible (HCOOH) is very odoriferous and that’s what the cousin of hymenoptera, the ants use (hence the name “formic” from Latin for ant). So while i’ll not state what’s known for certain what components make-up all of the honeybee attack pheromone, i’ve been witness at a beekeeper class of formic acid being applied to someone wearing a beekeeper’s suit and immediately being swarmed from workers in a nearby hive.
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But that gives formic acid as part of the venom, not the pheromone. My source for that was from is Secret Weapons by Eisner, Eisner, and Siegler. The pheromone gland then comes off with the stinger too. It’s interesting that they would also react to just the acid being applied too though.
(And to be pedantic, you said “cousin of Hymenoptera” but I’m sure you meant “cousin in”, since of course they both belong to that group.)
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