Scent

[Gmm243]

Evening,
I have recently noticed that I am attracting the attention of angry bees far more than in the past. When opening hives or even getting ready to do inspections near the hives there are usually bees trying to sting me and yet other folk seem to be ignored.
I don't smoke, use strong deodorant or anything that I can think of before opening hives and wash my suit fairly often. My son keeps his suit with mine in the car and he is pretty much ignored. Today I removed a super for a friend of my dad's. They two older men were totally ignored even though they were standing beside me and yet I was covered with cross angry bees trying to sting me. Went to 3 aparies today and I was hammered in everyone while Dad sat beside me and had hardly a bee on him. This is not something that has happened only today, last week I had to leave the apiary and walk down the lane to get rid of the cloud of bees.
I presume this is a scent issue or could there be something else that I am missing?

 

[rook66]

Evening,
I have recently noticed that I am attracting the attention of angry bees far more than in the past. When opening hives or even getting ready to do inspections near the hives there are usually bees trying to sting me and yet other folk seem to be ignored.
I don't smoke, use strong deodorant or anything that I can think of before opening hives and wash my suit fairly often. My son keeps his suit with mine in the car and he is pretty much ignored. Today I removed a super for a friend of my dad's. They two older men were totally ignored even though they were standing beside me and yet I was covered with cross angry bees trying to sting me. Went to 3 aparies today and I was hammered in everyone while Dad sat beside me and had hardly a bee on him. This is not something that has happened only today, last week I had to leave the apiary and walk down the lane to get rid of the cloud of bees.
I presume this is a scent issue or could there be something else that I am missing?

Fear could be a factor, there's a lot of reading on the net.
https://www.greenmatters.com/p/can-bees-really-smell-fear

 

[Wilco]

I think they do seem to dislike certain people. If this is a new thing, is there any chance your health has changed? I ask as some have reported on here that a pear drop smell can indicate there in attack mode and that smell on one's breath can indicate diabetes.

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/pear-drops-smell.29812/
One other consideration - have you washed your suit? If it smells of alarm pheromone, that might explain things.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Evening,
I have recently noticed that I am attracting the attention of angry bees far more than in the past. When opening hives or even getting ready to do inspections near the hives there are usually bees trying to sting me and yet other folk seem to be ignored.
I don't smoke, use strong deodorant or anything that I can think of before opening hives and wash my suit fairly often. My son keeps his suit with mine in the car and he is pretty much ignored. Today I removed a super for a friend of my dad's. They two older men were totally ignored even though they were standing beside me and yet I was covered with cross angry bees trying to sting me. Went to 3 aparies today and I was hammered in everyone while Dad sat beside me and had hardly a bee on him. This is not something that has happened only today, last week I had to leave the apiary and walk down the lane to get rid of the cloud of bees.
I presume this is a scent issue or could there be something else that I am missing?

Possible factors - Leather gloves. Type of detergent used to wash your suit. Banana sandwich in your pocket. Hearing aid or other electronic device making high pitch noise. Are you on some kind of medication that might create a body odour. Or the bees just hate you

 

[Gmm243]

No change to my health then I am aware of and not at all scsrd of them. Very happy to be working around them but concerned that I seem to be attracting angry attention even before I start working. Opened a hive today but even before I had got near they were pinging off my veil even though my dad was sitting beside them for 5 minutes without any attention and these bees are not really that aggressive normally.

 

[Gmm243]

My dad wears hearing aids that he always takes off before inspections as he thinks the high pitch whine is annoying the bees.
I am on blood pressure medication but can't say that I have noticed any difference in my body odour but it could be a very slight scent that I am not aware of but the bees can detect.

 

[ericbeaumont]

scent issue

Medication can exude chemicals which makes bees defensive.

don't smoke, use strong deodorant or anything that I can think of before opening hives and wash my suit fairly often

Smoking won't affect bees, but any perfume will do so as everything a human uses contains chemical perfumes, so make a list of what you put on and what you use to wash yourself & your clothes, and change those that are perfumed.

I use unscented shower gel, nothing else that may be perfumed, and wash my bee suits in washing soda only.

Do you drink alcohol? A by-product of manufacture is isoamyl acetate, also released when peeling a banana and is the pear taste in pear drops; it's made in a factory and added to perfumes and a multitude of other products sold to make humans feel successful and desirable.

Do you work with horses? Bees dislike animals for obvious reasons and will take against you.

Deodorant: don't, strong or otherwise. Of course, you may sweat and smell and trouble the bees that way, but try without deodorant for a week.

 

[ericbeaumont]

angry attention

not really that aggressive

Neither description is useful or accurate because bees do not get angry nor aggressive, but only respond to a perceived threat with varying degrees of defensive behaviour.

As you alone attract this attention you must identify all the scents you use, and remove each in turn from daily use for a few weeks to find which one the bees interpret as a threat.

 

[JamezF]

Smoking won't affect bees, but any perfume will do so as everything a human uses contains chemical perfumes, so make a list of what you put on and what you use to wash yourself & your clothes, and change those that are perfumed.

I've read that the chemical that gives the alarm pheromone its "banana" smell (isoamyl acetate) is also used in some perfume products. It's not always obvious however as it goes by a number of different names.

James

 

[ericbeaumont]

Duplicate.

 

[sarahcorlett2566]

I don’t think mine like my hairspray very much. I try not to use it when I go to the but even when I’m in the garden and they are flying past, they are much more likely to try to land on my head and fly around my ears if I have any, even with a cap on!

 

[JamezF]

I have sometimes wondered if the bees have some sort of negative reaction to chlorine. I try to swim three or four times a week and it gets to the stage where I can smell the chlorine when I shower at home even when I've already showered at the pool. Spend enough time swimming in it and it just doesn't seem to go away.

You get to questioning all sorts of things given time though. I had an SBI inspecting a colony a few years back and they were good as gold for her. She asked if I could assist and as soon as I stepped forward they were all over me. I was stung several times within a few seconds and walked away whilst she carried on quite happily working her way through the hive. Perhaps I just trigger some species memory of what a big scary bear coming to steal honey looks like (This may not be utterly implausible. Many of my daughter's friends' initial description on meeting me is "scary". I'm not sure why. I'm quite a laid back person. It's entirely possible that I look like someone who could rip your arm off and beat you to death with the soggy end though.)

James

 

[Sutty]

I have sometimes wondered if the bees have some sort of negative reaction to chlorine. I try to swim three or four times a week and it gets to the stage where I can smell the chlorine when I shower at home even when I've already showered at the pool. Spend enough time swimming in it and it just doesn't seem to go away.

You get to questioning all sorts of things given time though. I had an SBI inspecting a colony a few years back and they were good as gold for her. She asked if I could assist and as soon as I stepped forward they were all over me. I was stung several times within a few seconds and walked away whilst she carried on quite happily working her way through the hive. Perhaps I just trigger some species memory of what a big scary bear coming to steal honey looks like (This may not be utterly implausible. Many of my daughter's friends' initial description on meeting me is "scary". I'm not sure why. I'm quite a laid back person. It's entirely possible that I look like someone who could rip your arm off and beat you to death with the soggy end though.)

James

You need to start open water swimming - one of the delights is no chlorine, I did it all winter, though only 12 minutes when it was 4.5C!

 

[Garry R]

I am insulin dependent diabetic (55 years now), on blood pressure meds and statins (most diabetics are)| and recently diagnosed hyperthyroidism on meds for that too but have no issues with angry bees over all the 46 years of beekeeping.

 

[pargyle]

I don’t think mine like my hairspray very much. I try not to use it when I go to the but even when I’m in the garden and they are flying past, they are much more likely to try to land on my head and fly around my ears if I have any, even with a cap on!

Yes ... my bees seem to dislike my wife's hair ... the odd one will buzz her if she gets near the apiary... mind you she hates them so the feeling is probably mutual ! It could well be her hairspray - although the flapping arms and shrieking don't help a lot ...

 

[sarahcorlett2566]

Yes ... my bees seem to dislike my wife's hair ... the odd one will buzz her if she gets near the apiary... mind you she hates them so the feeling is probably mutual ! It could well be her hairspray - although the flapping arms and shrieking don't help a lot ...

Ha ha. I’ve got awful hair - thin and not much of it so the spray and lots of product is usually necessary to make me look presentable. Mind you, the bandana and cap ensemble isn’t particualrly fetching. This bee keeping lark isn’t very glamorous is it

 

[Newbeeneil]

Medication can exude chemicals which makes bees defensive.


Smoking won't affect bees, but any perfume will do so as everything a human uses contains chemical perfumes, so make a list of what you put on and what you use to wash yourself & your clothes, and change those that are perfumed.

I use unscented shower gel, nothing else that may be perfumed, and wash my bee suits in washing soda only.

Do you drink alcohol? A by-product of manufacture is isoamyl acetate, also released when peeling a banana and is the pear taste in pear drops; it's made in a factory and added to perfumes and a multitude of other products sold to make humans feel successful and desirable.

Do you work with horses? Bees dislike animals for obvious reasons and will take against you.

Deodorant: don't, strong or otherwise. Of course, you may sweat and smell and trouble the bees that way, but try without deodorant for a week.

Smell certainly excites bees.
I keep bees in the meadow of an old station. The station has quite a bit of woodwork on it which has been prepared by sanding machines and then painted. There are bees under the tile hanging but the painter was not stung once in the two weeks he was doing preparation but on the first day he started painting he was stung four times.

 

[ericbeaumont]

Few years ago the flat roof of the building next to the pub bees had to be re-surfaced; was asked to lock the bees in, which I did.

Roofers had good reason, as they were familiar with bees & wasps turning ferocious when they smelled the bituminous adhesive.

 

[Beegarden]

Hi Gmm, do you notice that any inspection straight after washing your suit is better than after they have been pinging, and not washed? Do you wash your suit in washing soda as well as detergent? Do you use conditioner, which may be attracting the bees? All the responses have been very helpful - you now need to go through a process of elimination. Good luck and do let us know your Eureka moment.

 

[blackcloud]

Swmbo has her hair tinted and will get arbitrarily attacked quite often
I have pulled all mine out and dont.

I find the latest batch of marigolds harbour stings just like leather gloves and you soon get little lynch mobs needling your fingertips.