Janet Baraclough wrote:
Yesterday, I found a very large handsome bumble bee bumbling around
the kitchen. Vaguely, I seemed to recall someone here saying that bumble
bees don't sting. So instead of catching him in a glass, as I would a
honey bee, I gently picked him up in my hand. The bee had not read urg,
and promptly stung, though not thoroughly enough to lose his
stingerthing , before being liberated outside.

I think it depends on the species of bumblebee. Certainly when I was
about five I caught a bumblebee in my hand and it stung me; it took
about ten years for the mark to disappear...

Rhiannon