text: Only a honeybee dies after it stings.  No other kind of bee dies after it stings once. All other types of bees have smooth stingers.  Once they sting you, they pull their stingers right back out. A honeybee's stinger, however, has a hook on the end. When a honeybee stings something and flies away, the stinger stays hooked in the flesh of the animal it just stung. Soft parts of the honeybee's body pull off with the stinger, and the bee soon dies.