Honey bees sting to defend their colony. The colony includes the adult bees (queen, workers and drones, the immature bees that are developing (brood), the wax comb they have produced and built and the food (nectar, honey and pollen) that they have stored in the comb.
Individual worker bees respond to an intruder’s actions by secreting an alarm pheromone that functions as an odor cue to alert other workers. As a bee stings it “marks” the surface with a sting pheromone that may produce a group stinging response.
- John Skinner, University of Tennessee
Bee Informed Partnership