Whenever a bee or wasp or horsefly or whatever is buzzing around me, I take a swipe at it. Since they are rather slow, I often make contact. Do they really get mad or just disoriented? They always seem to fly around like crazy for a few seconds and then high-tail it outta there, but they almost never try to sting me. Maybe they are going to get reinforcements or something.
Diver
Hey, somebody has to answer your question, out of the tm. Bees will sting only as a last resort. Why?, you may ask. Because they die after stinging, except for the queen bee, which is the only bee with a smooth stinger. The instinct for preservation of the species urges bees to attack you if they feel their hive is being threatened. The instinct for self-preservation is not so great, and they just may flee.
Well that may be true for bees but I had personal experience with one scary looking wasp thing this summer, it fell, no it didn’t land, it fell onto my face andI freaked out for a sec but it didn’t sting me, on the nose may I add, until I swatted at it. Evil thing.
Kitty
As a child, I stepped in a ground nest of bees and got stung about 10 times. They attack when they or their hive are threatened. Last time I ate out of doors, there were bees flying around trying to get at our food and sodas, and I’d sort of wave them away (not swat), but they didn’t stay away long. I would think a “swat” would be taken by the bee as an attack – I wouldn’t try to actually hit one if I were you, but maybe the swat stunned it briefly and it just got disoriented and took off. If you’re eating out of doors when this happens, try putting an almost empty soda can or something sweet a few feet away to see if that will draw them away. BTW, not ALL bees die after they sting - only honey bees. Most critters prefer flight to fight, and attack only as a last resort.
Definitely need to classify which bees are which.
Yellowjackets are probably what Sycorax stepped on, as they nest in the ground. It is my understanding that they attack rather viciously, and do it by sensing motion.
A fellow snopsian, Brad from Georgia recently related a tale of how he and a friend uncovered a nest of very angry yellowjackets while digging. The one kid ran screaming and got stung dozens of times. Brad froze, stood there for an hour, bees crawling all over him, but never got stung. Anecdotal, I know. But believable.
Most insects I ignore.
Unless they get on me by surprise. Then I spasm and do the “I’ve got a bug on me” twitch.
Bumble bees do. They’re the big, plump bees that hover a lot–and when they get mad, they swarm. They can sting multiple times.
On a side note, if you have a yellow jacket hovering around you and want to try to make it go away peacefully, try moving your flat hand (palm down) gently around the same area that it’s hovering over. They seem to hover over areas on which they want to land, and moving your hand in the same motion seems to indicate to them that the space is taken. My mom discovered this when helping out with some winemaking – yellow jackets love ripe grapes – and found that this trick usually makes them go away peacefully.
Yellowjackets are not bees. They are wasps and do not die after stinging. Hence, they are more aggressive.
To my knowledge I have never killed a bee (other than my car). Wasps however piss me off and I am a very effecient Wasp killer. Swat 'em, they fall to the ground disoriented then squish 'em. These things serve no purpose other than to sting people.
Bees, flies, yellowjackets, weevils, lice, fleas, leeches, Republicans… everything. 
I am under the impression that you don’t really wanna smash bees or wasps. MAybe just bees, though. The reason is that the squirt out agitation pheremones, and others bees, upon smelling, get driven into an attacking frenzy.
Best thing to kills wasps? WD-40. Does the trick like nobody’s business.
jb