Not so sure that they are "just insects"

[Gene Weitzel]

Being educated in Chemistry and Engineering, I would have to go with the odor/pheromone hypothesis. I would not be surprised to learn that the dance is an elaborate form of pheromone communication where a returning bee is laying down a "map" so to speak of the pheromone trail for her hive mates to follow. This could explain the lack of success by researchers using the "robotic" bee approach when trying to duplicate the so called "dance language". The receptors that these creatures have developed to detect extremely low levels of certain compounds is astounding. Even with the recent advances in nano-technology, we have not managed to come close to duplicating it. This is why there is quite a bit of ongoing research in using insects in early warning defense applications (mostly in detecting bio/chemo attacks).

devdog, we know that smoke seems to mask the honey bee's ability to respond to their alarm pheromone, but there is absolutely no evidence to that being the case in regard to trail pheromones. In fact, I would postulate that since the trail pheromones are detected at much lower concentrations than the alarm pheromone, by design the bees would need to be able to detect it over environmental "pheromone noise" like smoke and other fumes/odors.

[devdog108]

Thanks Gene, Like I said, I think its a combination of both. DOn't forget about that 20 mph crosswind that day as well. That would be one long trail of Pheremone....LOLOL....Thats why I said its a combo of both. Of course, you never know. I saw them today up at the local store storming an semi empty soda can which is a little over a mile....LOLOL

[Barry]

Originally Posted by devdog108

I saw them today up at the local store storming an semi empty soda can which is a little over a mile....LOLOL

Keep in mind that there are foragers, and then there are recruits. You were most likely seeing foragers.

[devdog108]

No doubt in my mind thats what they were.....You should have seen the lady that owns the place when i picked up a can full of Hb's and YJ's. She can barely speak English and that made it even funnier.....

[Gene Weitzel]

Here is a little anecdotal evidence in favor of my position. My 2005 Dodge 2500 "Bee truck" is also the vehicle I use to commute to my day job. I use this truck a lot for cutouts and it typically gets lots of honey dribbled in the bed. When I return home from cutouts, I am literally greeted by the girls looking to clean up the mess. I have not used it for that purpose in several months and even after a lot of rain, everywhere I park the truck (and I do mean everywhere, not just when I am near my bee yards), within 5 or 10 minutes there are 5 to 10 foragers checking it out. Given the high degree of water solubility of honey, I don't believe that the honey odor could possibly survive the deluge we got in October, but pheromones are typically not very soluble in water so they could definitely hang around a lot longer. It does not seem to take long for passing foragers to zero in on it.

[devdog108]

Thats cool. There is no doubt that pheremone is involved, but I popsed the question in Commercial Beeking reading a post and noone replied. Where my Dad lives, there are TONS on other bees, but no honey bees that we saw. It is said that the drones fly out to the breeding site, area, whatever......BUT, what happens if there has never been bees before. We rehived my dads bees, but it looks like theres a virgin queen....how does she find a breeding area, site, whatever. Do drones emit a pheremone that says hey guys, here is the site where we are going to meet up and try and catch a hottie flying by? If they do, then your theory of pheremones lasting a while is More than true, as a new queen has NO other idea where to go except being guided by pheremones....and if it does indeed rain, they still go out and find them a few men.....your theory and my deduction hold water no doubt.....

[Dalantech]

Originally Posted by Gene Weitzel

...Given the high degree of water solubility of honey, I don't believe that the honey odor could possibly survive the deluge we got in October, but pheromones are typically not very soluble in water so they could definitely hang around a lot longer. It does not seem to take long for passing foragers to zero in on it.

There is one other possibility that you're discounting because they're insects: Memory. What if they can recognize your truck?...

[Dalantech]

Originally Posted by Cyathea

Wow, that photo is simply incredible!

Thanks

More bees and wasps here

[WI-beek]

Originally Posted by Dalantech

As a macro photographer I get to see the world at a slightly different level than most. On several occasions, while out taking photos, I've had insects stop and hover right in front of me. It's almost as if they are trying to figure out who or what I am. Afterwords they go about their business, most of the time treating me as if I'm part of the scenery.

This reminded me of a day this year when I went out to my apiary after extracting and was walking out to my bees without a suit on and a bumble bee the size of my thumb started flying circles around me at knee level. It made this very loud low pitch buzz sound as it circled around me. It really freaked me out. I stood there for a few seconds thinking it would go on its way but it didnt so I walked back to my car and the thing flew circles around me all the way there. When I got to the car I made a dash to get inside and It tried to follow me in. I am usually not to scared of bees but this thing really freaked me out. I remember trying to figure out what its deal with me was. I was wearing a white shirt and blue pants. I don't know if it smelled honey on me or what but I put my jacket on before I went back out. Is there a good website for bumble bee identification. I have seen big bumble bees like this before but all have had some yellow. This one was mostly black and no yellow that I remember. I would have really hated to get stung by that thing.

[Barry]

From your explanation, it was probably a carpenter bee.
http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2006/12/3...on-my-hand.jpg