How a TikTok beekeeper who scoops up hundreds of bees avoids getting stung on the job

• Beekeeper Erika Thompson rescues bees from undesired locations, often with her bare hands.
• She shares the bee removals on TikTok, and the No. 1 question she's asked is how she isn't stung.
• Thompson said bees are gentle. If you do get stung, remove the stinger and add honey to the wound.

There's one question TikTok bee-fluencer Erika Thompson never stops answering: How do you not get stung by the bees?

In recent months, the professional beekeeper has become known for her viral TikTok videos where she's seen rescuing and scooping up piles of bees - often without gloves or protection.

Each time she posts a video, a flood of comments arrives, mainly asking, "How are they not stinging you?"

Thompson admits to Insider that she's been stung hundreds of times in the decade since she started beekeeping, but for the most part, she evades the stingers.

Through TikTok and her business Texas Beekworks, Thompson told Insider she's working to change the narrative about bees. Bees aren't angry or creatures to be fearful of, Thompson explains in her videos - instead, they're gentle insects pollinating and supporting our food systems.

Bees are gentle and mean no harm, Thompson told Insider

Thompson typically spends her days answering calls for bee removals.

She might venture to someone's backyard, home, or business to collect and remove an unwanted beehive. When she arrives at a bee removal site, she told Insider she'll gauge whether or not she needs to wear gear, which is based on the behavior of the bees. Often there's no need for protective gear, she said.

Then, she'll start collecting their honeycomb, search for the queen, scoop, and place the majority of the hive into a new home.

For the most part, Thompson said she leaves unscathed. Partly because bees are gentle and partly because Thompson is a trained professional.

"That's probably one of the biggest misconceptions, is that all bees want to sting you all the time," Thompson told Insider. "And that's not true."

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♬ original sound - Erika Thompson

Thompson said the bees mean no harm, and the only time that changes is when they feel threatened.

"When you see bees and they're out in the world doing the work of bees, so when they're out pollinating around flowers or you see them in your juice glass or whatever it is, they're not near their colony or their hive," she told Insider. "So they don't have resources to defend."

And if someone or something threatens them on the job, they're more likely to sting, Thompson said.

Whether it's reaching for a glass with a bee or accidentally sitting on a bee in her truck, Thompson said she gets stung more often when she's not paying attention.

But when she does get stung, she has simple strategies that help.

If you get stung by a bee, Thompson recommends treating it with honey

Thompson said she has no hacks or ingenious tricks for what to do when a bee stings since she's used to the stings.

Her biggest piece of advice is to remove the stinger as fast as possible.

"That will sometimes lessen the severity of the sting," she told Insider. "That stinger can continue to pump venom into you and into your skin even long after the bee has flown off."

Thompson said that if she is near some honey, she'll place a dollop of that on the puncture since honey is both antibacterial and antimicrobial.

According to a review of the medicinal benefits of honey in the Jundishapur Journal of Natural Pharmaceutical Products, honey can promote rapid and improved healing, and not just on bee stings. Honey has also been proven to help with other wounds and burns due to the honey's properties, according to the same review.

Overall, Thompson's goal is to show that bees aren't creatures to be fearful of.

"I'm thankful for the opportunity to show people that you can work alongside bees," she said.