Question: What is the most dangerous wasp/bee?

John Paterson answered on 10 Jun 2019:

This is a good question! A lot of people think that wasps and bees can always sting you, but this actually isn’t true. We have hundreds of species of wasp and bee in the UK and most of them can’t sting at all. A lot of bees and wasps actually live on their own ( we call them ‘solitary’ wasps or bees) and therefore don’t sting as they don’t have a hive to protect.

Having said that, the most common species of wasp and bee that you will see in the UK can sting you (I’m thinking of common yellow-and-black wasps, bumblebees and honeybees). Most of the time they don’t want to and you have to bother a bumblebee a LOT before it will sting you but they can do it. This is normally painful but not serious unless you are allergic to them.

There are more dangerous wasps and bees in the world. In particular the tarantula hawk wasp has an incredibly painful sting, which it uses to paralyse tarantulas so it can lay eggs on them. The velvet ant is a type of wasp that is furry and has no wings – they look really cool but they also have a very painful sting.

But, to my knowledge, there are no bees or wasps that could seriously hurt or kill someone on their own unless that person is allergic.