Lawnmowing

[user 6228]

Had them react to next doors mowing habit of revving up and down with the strimmer. whee ,whee, whee,
It annoyed the bees enough to make them stop us with our petrol mower...
and they remain annoyed for about 1/2 hr afterwards. The noise annoyed the heck out of me as well.
However, same day they ignored our petrol mower and our petrol strimmer , operated properly at a constant full chat.

So if you dont want to be treated like a wasp dont imitate one or be near someone imitating one

 

[alanf]

do bees hear a different range to us?
could the elecy mower have a very high or low frequency sound?

They react to vibration. Just look at how important waggle dances and dvav is to their operation. It's certainly the case that different colonies have different reactions. But is does appear to be the higher frequencies that provoke the 'sensitive' colonies more than a lower frequency.

I don't have all the specs to hand but a reasonable size petrol mower will be running a heavy blade at around 3000 rpm under lightish load. That's the rpm of the blade and the engine that drives it directly. An electric mower has a smaller, lighter blade driven a bit faster, maybe 3 to 4000 rpm. Most corded electric mowers are geared down so the motor core is running at 12000 rpm or more. A two stroke petrol strimmer idles at around 3000, and revs under no load to 10 or 12000 although they work better at a more constant but lower speed.

It's not a simple harmonic, there are all sorts of vibration modes going on in garden equipment. It seems reasonable though to think that we're more likely to get a reaction from parts of the machinary running at 10 or 12 thousand rpm than something significantly lower.

 

[madasafish]

They react to vibration. Just look at how important waggle dances and dvav is to their operation. It's certainly the case that different colonies have different reactions. But is does appear to be the higher frequencies that provoke the 'sensitive' colonies more than a lower frequency.

...
It's not a simple harmonic, there are all sorts of vibration modes going on in garden equipment. It seems reasonable though to think that we're more likely to get a reaction from parts of the machinary running at 10 or 12 thousand rpm than something significantly lower.

As my hives are mounted on grass (softish ground), that will absorb and minimise vibration: which perhaps explains the lack of reaction to my lawnmowering..