What hurts worse, a yellow jacket or a bee?

What hurts worse, a yellow jacket or a bee sting, depends on individual sensitivity, type of bee, location of sting, and number of stings, but generally yellow jacket stings are considered to hurt worse for most people than honeybee stings due to behavior and venom. Yellow jacket stings are often described as hot, sharp, and burning with more intense immediate pain, and yellow jackets can sting multiple times because they have smooth stinger that does not remain in skin, injecting more venom with each sting, while honeybees have barbed stinger that remains and continues to release venom until removed, and honeybee can sting only once then dies. On Schmidt sting pain index, both are rated around 2 out of 4, but yellow jacket is often described as more painful due to ability to sting repeatedly and more aggressive defense when nest disturbed, leading to multiple stings. Bee venom and yellow jacket venom have different compositions, bee venom contains melittin that causes pain, while yellow jacket venom contains proteins that cause more burning sensation for some. For allergic individuals, both can cause severe anaphylaxis, but multiple yellow jacket stings increase venom load and risk. For most people, yellow jacket sting feels worse because it is more likely to be multiple stings and more burning, while bee sting is single sharp pain followed by throbbing and itching. Treatment similar for both, clean, ice, and monitor for allergy.