That's Why Bees Can Only Sting Once

what was that on your arm a bee great not exactly a pleasant feeling painful itchy annoying scary we've all been there before so that happens because the bee jabs its barbed singer into your skin and releases some venom the venom contains proteins that cause pain and can affect your immune system and skin cells but that's nothing compared to what the bee has to go through poor little thing you'll be fine after a few hours but the bee not so much honey bees don't usually sting people unless they feel threatened or if you accidentally step on them the problem is that after stinging you the bee can't pull its barb stinger out of your skin the only way to get free is to leave the stinger behind the stinger though not just a sweet defense mechanism it also contains part of the bee's digestive tract nerves and muscles that are unfortunately essential for the bee to function normally so yep after losing all that this tiny creature doesn't survive yikes poor little bee apart from that they're such cool animals they have five eyes two pairs of wings and six legs bees have excellent survival instincts and they've been around for a really long time 130 million years and counting who knows what ancient species they've stung most bees in the hive are called worker bees and the big cheese is called the queen she lays around 2 000 eggs per day sound like a lot well the average hive contains 50 000 bees and they disappear after just one sting i guess going through a painful and itchy experience doesn't actually sound that bad when you only have one bee on your arm imagine if you had the whole hive it may seem like bees just aimlessly fly around or use their vision to decide where they go but these cool insects are pretty organized and rely on a super complex transport system imagine planning a cross-country road trip only this time there are no roads i can't even make it to the gym without my gps or if i stop at a burger joint on the way there but not bees they're way cooler than us they use bee lines well i call them that they're basically a series of insect pathways bees tend to follow through human towns or the countryside these pathways link every existing wildlife area together it's like a b railway system my favorite bee is the buff-tailed bumblebee it has an oval-shaped body covered in dense hair and a brain the size of a poppy seed considering how small it is that's really impressive how smart are they scientists made an experiment where they trained a bunch of them to play bee soccer they even learned how to score a goal in return for a sweet sugary treat unbelievable these same bees have another amazing ability they use their smelly footprints to distinguish between the scents of strangers their own be relatives they can even recognize their own scent bumblebees we know your dirty little secret you have smelly feet and then there's the queen bee she's unique in her colony and her main task laying eggs people often assume the queen is there to tell the other bees exactly what to do yeah not really she does have a certain influence but even without her the hive actually functions pretty well each bee has a job and knows its daily functions and tasks because of its instincts and the chemical signals it senses and uses so i guess no one needs to tell them how to behave those chemical signals are their way of communicating oh and they know how to shake it they wiggle their bodies at specific angles for a certain amount of time that's how they send messages to each other if something happens to the queen bee and she doesn't survive worker bees create a new one yep they don't find one but sort of raise a new one they choose a young larva and feed the future her majesty a special food called royal jelly that lucky larva can now grow into the new queen these are fast they can beat their wings almost 200 times a second those eight push-ups i can do in a minute not sounding so impressive each bee produces around one teaspoon of honey in its lifetime to produce one pound of honey these have to fly the equivalent of one whole time around the globe these hard-working animals make around 100 million trips to about 200 million flowers to collect enough nectar for that pound of honey honeybees sleep five to eight hours a day and just like us they rest at night their brains are pretty active when they're resting some scientists think they may be dreaming also just like us when winter rolls around a lot of insects replace their body water with a special chemical called glycerol it's a type of natural antifreeze that helps them stay alive in low temperatures bees though they just huddle together in the hive to stay toasty warm alright enough about these let's whip around the animal kingdom looking for crazy facts bats could eat a thousand insects an hour if they were insanely hungry they're the only mammal that can fly and their bones are so thin most of them can't even walk insects for the most part don't have ears on their heads instead they have them all over their bodies snails can sleep for three years without waking up slugs have four noses so they better avoid those stinky feet bumble bees butterflies are quite simple and practical animals that taste with their feet and only feed on liquids they're cold-blooded so if it gets below 55 degrees they can't fly look for food or escape a sticky situation their main defense tactic is camouflage works pretty well until it gets cold the opposite strategy is having vibrant colorful patterns that let everyone know where you are colorful insects are often toxic so birds and bigger insects tend to leave them alone wasps recognize their relatives by identifying unique facial patterns ants don't have lungs instead they breathe through small holes all over their bodies also they almost never sleep but they do love to nap ants are incredibly strong and can carry more than 50 times their own weight if you were that strong you'd be able to carry an adult elephant you know like if it's stepping on your toe and you want to get it off you for every human there are more than a million ants and over 200 million insects luckily they're smaller than us if they weren't we'd be the ants you can hypnotize a frog if you place it on its back and gently stroke its stomach with your fingers what if that worked on humans hey wanna hang out i know a sloth does its weird biology allows it to spend most of its life just hanging upside down from a tree a sloth is so slow it takes around a month to totally digest food rhinos have horns made out of the same stuff as hair scientists trained pigeons to be able to tell the difference between famous artists claude monet and pablo picasso okay wait even pigeons are smarter than me now just when you think pandas can't get any cuter check this out when they're born pandas weigh around 4 ounces and are smaller than a mouse animals that have a super fast metabolism inside a small body like squirrels do see in slow motion they evolve this feature to be able to escape bigger animals that's cool when you think about it it really makes them powerful squirrels usually run away from their enemies by scampering off in a zigzag pattern because no idea sorry people they tend to bird their food in many different places since it's impossible to keep an eye on all their hiding spots other animals like to sneak over and steal their goods that's why squirrels sometimes only pretend to bury their food somewhere to throw off any potential thieves oh how nutty of them an ostrich has a brain smaller than its eye but it has really strong legs it can run faster than a horse flamingos only eat when their heads are turned upside down

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 776,267

Rating: 4.8881416 out of 5

Keywords: bright side, bright side videos, insects, dangerous insects, most dangerous bugs, facts about animals, unique animals, wild animals, Asian giant hornet, bright side what if, what if stories, what if scenario, what if experiment, what happens when a bee stings you, bee sting, why bee stings once, why bees sting you, why bees only sting once, ants vs humans, rhino horn made of, cute animals, animal videos, myths about animals, how bees choose a queen, inside a beehive

Id: ku6-NUJOzmA

Length: 7min 10sec (430 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 06 2021