Can bumble bees sting at all?

Question

Can bumble bees sting at all?

Answer 1

The male bumble bee has no sting so it cannot, the female can sting but they don't very often.

Pinhead is wrong, the female bumble bee sting is not barbed, so it can be retracted so it does not die and lives to sting again.

Answer 2

yes and the reason the rarely sting is because when they do they die

edit - ok ok ok i misread BUMBLE bee for HONEY bee oops ;-)

Answer 3

If you are referring to "bumble bees" in the sense of a furry large loud insect, then yes they can sting, and they do not die from stinging.  

Worker honeybees have a barbed stinger, and do die after stinging.  Drone honeybees do not have stingers.  Queen honeybees have smooth stingers and can sting repeatedly.  Africanized bees are just another type of honeybee.  Most other types of bees (wasps, hornets, yellowjackets, etc) can sting repeatedly, and have un-barbed stingers.

I have been a beekeeper since I was 15 years old.

Answer 4

yes they sting and if you get stung by enough of them it hurts like h**l i know that one from experience

Answer 5

Yes they can, and the pain from those stings can last longer than wasp stings. However, they rarely sting as they are not aggressive.