Meliponine bees retain a sting only as a vestige: it is small, soft and cannot pierce skin. Defence is instead mechanical and chemical. Guards mass at the tubular nest entrance, and disturbed colonies pour out to bite, tangle in hair and crawl into ears and nostrils. Larger species such as Trigona have sharp mandibles that break skin.
A few Amazonian species go further, carrying plant resins and caustic secretions that are applied to the bite, producing burning and blistering. Resin is central to meliponine life more generally: nests are built from cerumen, a mix of wax and plant resin, and entrance tubes are often sticky enough to trap ants.
Stingless bee honey is stored in rounded pots, not hexagonal comb, and is thinner and more acidic than honey bee honey because of higher water content and different fermentation. That water content also makes it less shelf stable, which is why meliponiculture yields are small and the honey is usually sold as a specialty product.