"bumblebee" is the most adorable name for a creature ever devised.
this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2026
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Chapotraphouse
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the genus name is bombus
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They used to be called dumbledores
You can pet bees as-is. I went to the botanical gardens and the guide invited us to gently pet them with one finger when they were on flowers.
ngl I would be doing that anyway just to stay in that bee's good graces cause that stinger would be terrifying
Have you ever had a cat
A bee sting is agonizing enough at bug size. I can't imagine what a cat sized dose of stinger venom would feel like. Might even be deadly.
And if I was friendly with the bee, I wouldn't fear it stinging me aggressively at all because it kills them too, but I'd be terrified of an accidental sting.
Now a cat-sized wasp, that's another scenario I don't like to think about
I remember reading something somewhere about how a bee sting is about 0.5% the venom of a rattlesnake bite
if a bee were magically scaled up to the size of a cat, let's say 20x, the volume of venom delivered would increase by a factor of 20^3, so it would be 20^3 * 0.5% = 4000% the venom of a rattlesnake bite 
At cat size, the bee wouldn't have the problem of its stinger getting lodged in human skin and being unable to safely free itself, but if we're envisioning a bee that just naturally wound up that big I would honestly think its stinger would end up being vestigial since it could just bite the kinds of things its stinger is for and anything bigger would have to contend with swarms of cat-sized bees doing the thing small birds do to chase off predators where they just make it fuck off by buzzing it repeatedly. A dozen of these giant bees dive bombing and circling around would probably be enough to drive off even a bear.
If we're working evolution into this, I don't see a cat-sized bee surviving with all the innards sloshing around in a too-big exoskeleton. Tarantulas are already dangerously fragile with main bodies half the size if a mouse.
I don't think a cat-sized bee would even be able to breathe in the current atmosphere of earth.
Would bees then be possibly surgically de-stinged?
When I was a kid I found an injured bumblebee in the frontyard. I got a stick with honey on it and had the bumblebee crawl onto it and then we just sat on the front steps of my house until it flew away. I'll never forget that. The store bought honey probably did not help the bee but at the time I sure thought it did.
The store bought honey probably did not help the bee
I guarantee you did help. Nectar is functionally concentrated sugar water, and honey is even more concentrated than that! Bees are also known to raid abandoned hives for their honey.
A kitten sized bumblebee wouldn’t be able to fly
