# Bananas and bees



## Ben Franklin (May 3, 2011)

I once heard bees don't like the smell of bananas, is this true?


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

alarm pheremone smells KINDA like bananas, although it has been claimed there is a connection, I don't think there is any concrete evidence that bananas trigger the same response as alarm pheremone does


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## WLC (Feb 7, 2010)

It's banana oil.

I avoid eating bananas, or drinking anything with bananas in it, if I think that I'll work with the hives.

I heard that juicyfruit gum had the oil in it, so I haven't chewed it in a while.

There's a way to find out though...


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## Birdman (May 8, 2009)

I seen a video, where a man used artificial banana on a piece of cloth, he put it in front of the hive. The bee's went after it. Don't know where I found it.


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## ArtSmart (Sep 29, 2012)

Birdman said:


> I seen a video, where a man used artificial banana on a piece of cloth


I guess bees don't like plastic bananas, not the smell  Don't walk around the hive with an unpeeled banana!


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## Beregondo (Jun 21, 2011)

I had heard that too, so I suited up and peeled a banana in front of a hive.

The bees didn't care.
At all.

So I crushed some the the flesh.
They still didn't care.
So I sat down on my hive watching crate, took my veil off, and enjoyed a snack while I watched bees for a bit.

Bananas have no apparent effect on my bees.

My bees are not your bees.
Your bees live in a different place, and may be a different race.


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## Bees In Miami (Nov 30, 2012)

We occasionally hire some local labor to help us do some of the more heavy work around our yard. One afternoon, he got popped 3 times...nobody else was stung. He came back to help us the next month, and he got nailed 5 times....again nobody else got stung. My husband even mowed, and weed whacked, with no stings at all. After he left, I spotted banana peels in the trash can. The next time he came, I told him he could not eat his banana snack. He didn't get stung that day. Coincidence? Very possible. Will I eat bananas and visit my hives? No.


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## Stingy (Dec 14, 2010)

Apparently the compounds in both the pheromone and bananas are very similar. My first experience with bananas and bees came when I was using a fancy wax on my car that contained 'banana wax' among other things. Bees were flying onto my car trying to give it a stinger. It was interesting to say the least. 

Bottom line, avoid bananas around the bees.


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## Adam Foster Collins (Nov 4, 2009)

It's artificial banana flavor - not real banana. Artificial banana flavoring is similar to bee alarm...


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## Chemguy (Nov 26, 2012)

Artificial banana flavor/scent is a pure compound called isoamyl acetate. Bananas also contain the same substance (plus many others) and the amount lessens as the fruit ripens (green bananas contain more, freckled less). Isoamyl acetate is also one of the two known alarm pheromones of A. mellifera.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

I just split a hive. They got a bit stingy. I sat down 20 feet away and ate my lunch. A few bees were pestering me. I opened my banana. Bees all over me. Moved back into the open garage. A bee on my open banana. Ate my banana with bees still pestering me. Finished my banana. No more bothersome bees. Lesson learned. Don't eat bananas near bothered bees.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

Someone once told me banana would help cure chalkbrood. As I layed a piece of banana on the topbars of a previously unajatated colony, my hand turned gray with stinging bees! I was sure I had been had and would have applied rapid pressure to suggesters nose if it had been available. 
Do not mix banana and beekeeping. It could have a bad end. .


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

Well, I know beekeepers in Mexico and Columbia that feed "ripe" bananas to their bees. Cheap source of carbohydrates. I've seen the videos and no evidence of aggressiveness.


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## psm1212 (Feb 9, 2016)

Someone has already said it, but the Koschevinikov gland produces many different compounds that make up the alarm pheromone that accompanies a sting, with Isoamyl acetate being one of them -- perhaps a primary one, I am not sure. I also am unsure if that pheromone can be produced in the absence of a sting (basically scented into the air like the Nasonov gland). If anyone knows the answer to that, please post.


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## DaisyNJ (Aug 3, 2015)

I ate bananas before opening hives, dangled banana peel in front the hives, on top bars etc, with no effect at all. I like ripe banana, so could be that.


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## IAmTheWaterbug (Jun 4, 2014)

$10 for a 15 ml from amazon, just in case someone wants to do some science.


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## drr (Jan 30, 2017)

Michael Palmer said:


> Well, I know beekeepers in Mexico and Columbia that feed "ripe" bananas to their bees. Cheap source of carbohydrates. I've seen the videos and no evidence of aggressiveness.


My bees LOVE ripe bananas! My recommendations to avoid problems:
* Feed only a 1/2 banana to a hive at a time. Too much of a good thing can invite bad players.
* Feed directly over/into a large cluster of bees inside the hive, so they attack/consume all of it quickly - 
* Do not put it out front of the hive or inside the inner cover,
those spots will only invite hive beetles,
wasps and other pests to come and feast as well.

Bananas provide a variety of vitamins and minerals:
B6, Manganese, C, Potassium, Protien, Magnesium, Folate, Riboflaven, Niancin, A, and Iron.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/271157.php

Great food for developing brood.
-enjoy
...Don...


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## Skyesbees (Jul 22, 2019)

Ben Franklin said:


> I once heard bees don't like the smell of bananas, is this true?


isoamyl acetate is a pheromone given off by bees that are stressed, a hive that is queenless or by the fermentation of pollen when small hive beetles (SHB) inoculate pollen with yeast in the hive. Banana oil is essentially isoamyl acetate. I suspect the reaction is because they are assuming a banana is small hive beetles.


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## luelle (Aug 20, 2019)

Full disclosure: I'm a newbie-keeper. Still, I'd like to add my 2 cents. 

I found a youtube video where a BK sits between 2 hives, eating a banana. Not one bee bothered him. Given that bees' sense of smell FAR exceeds our own, "smelling *like* bananas" didn't seem to register as nearly close enough for bees in my book. Like this BK says, other factors - and there are many possibilities - must have been at play if you were attacked by bees "because of bananas". 

I was shocked to discover fellow beekeepers feeding bananas to their bees so I researched it a bit. It turns out that, in Australian, they use banana peels to help fend off chalk brood. They also say it has an impact on Varroa mites and individual bee health. Now, this may or may not be purely anecdotal, but it made me want to dig deeper. The science of it would have something to do with ethylene gas. The gas emitted by ripening bananas. Again, though, I couldn't find a good study on the matter but it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. 

Curiosity got the best of me. . . What I wouldn't do to help my yellow-striped, winged friends. . . 

This thread aptly points to all the good nutrients found in bananas. As a former ultra distance athlete, I know how important bananas - LOTS of bananas - can be during an event. The way I see it, *bees are little athletes in a league of their own*. I thought it logical that they, too, might benefit from a truly amazing fruit, if they would have it. I got into beekeeping to help the bees first and foremost. Why wouldn't I look into a win-win situation where not only nutrition, but also health were both provided by one cheap solution? I thought it was definitely worth trying. 

After 2 hours of installing 2 banana halves on my feed rack, the bees had covered them both in layers of bees. Within 48 hours, they had done a great job showing me that, not only did they find the food source great, they also found their way through the peel. I removed the carcasses to replace them with fresh. Those pics were taken a good bit after I was done feeding the hive. Yet, those bees remained on my original banana halves . . 

There can only been one conclusion in my mind - though anecdotal as it may be - I'm going to keep using bananas as food source when feeding is in order. 

Hope this helps!


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

i use over ripe banana juice as an attractant in my small hive beetle traps. i've not noticed any reaction by the bees to the banana scent one way or the other.


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## luelle (Aug 20, 2019)

Skyesbees said:


> isoamyl acetate is a pheromone given off by bees that are stressed, a hive that is queenless or by the fermentation of pollen when small hive beetles (SHB) inoculate pollen with yeast in the hive. Banana oil is essentially isoamyl acetate. I suspect the reaction is because they are assuming a banana is small hive beetles.


I'd like to know where you got this information. My digging into your affirmations led me to the following. 

Per Wikipedia definition about the chemical composition of "Banana Oil" is as follows:

"Isoamyl acetate, also known as isopentyl acetate, is an organic compound that is *the ester formed from isoamyl alcohol and acetic acid*. It is a colorless liquid that is only slightly soluble in water, but very soluble in most organic solvents. Isoamyl acetate has a strong odor which is also described as similar to both banana and pear.[3] Pure isoamyl acetate, or mixtures of isoamyl acetate, amyl acetate, and other flavors may be referred to as Banana oil.[4]"

"Esters are formed by the reactions of organic acids and alcohols created during fermentation. In fact, the naming convention for esters is alcohol for the first word and acid for the second word, hence isoamyl is the alcohol part of the reaction during fermentation and acetate is the acid." 

Banana Nutrition Facts:
Serving Size 1 medium (7" to 7-7/8" long) (118 g)
Per Serving	% Daily Value*

Calories 105 
Calories from Fat 4 
Total Fat 0.4g	1%
Saturated Fat 0.1g	1%
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.1g 
Monounsaturated Fat 0g 
Cholesterol 0mg	0%
Sodium 1mg	0%
Potassium 422.44mg	12%
Carbohydrates 27g	9%
Dietary Fiber 3.1g	12%
Sugars 14.4g 
Protein 1.3g 
Vitamin A 2% · Vitamin C 17%
Calcium 1% · Iron 2%
*Based on a 2,000 calorie diet

*Conclusion*: to say that "_*Banana oil is essentially isoamyl acetate*_" seems true, but such "oil" is not present in bananas that I can tell. I'm attaching a link to an actual research paper on "General Stress Responses in the Honey Bee", dated from 2012. A quick word search on the paper did not reveal any occurences of the words: isoamyl or acetate". Maybe someone else can add to this.

https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/3/4/1271/htm

While banana oil can be used to artificially flavor foods and such, because we humans essentially can't tell the difference, _*my bet is that the bees can*_. . . and they don't care about the real bananas smell one iota! In other words: synthetic banana smell = bee stress hormone smell but not = to real banana smell.

*Hypothesis:* if isoamyl acetate is in fact stress hormones generated by bees, and we know that real bananas don't contain any isoamyl acetate at all, then we might conclude that bees like bananas, and the adverse reactions while feeding ripe bananas are the result of something else. 

Thanks for the opportunity to discover more about this topic.


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## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Luelle, firstly, welcome to Beesource. I appreciate the little experiment. I have a handfull of overripe bananas in the freezer that are normally reserved for banana bread. I am going to see what the bees do with them tomorrow in an open feeding situation. I am hoping to replicate your results. I may try the green banana (no spots) thing also at a later date.


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## luelle (Aug 20, 2019)

Very cool! Looking forward to your results. 

For the record, my banana was still edible - not overripe. I cut both ends off, then sliced it in the middle on the inside of the bend so I had two "smiley faces", so to speak. 

Standing by. . . Thanks for the warm welcome!


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## luelle (Aug 20, 2019)

Adding to this thread with my continued study of "The Banana Phenomena".

Went to the hive to feed the bees again yesterday. Since I was also planning on treating for Varroa, I removed my second banana and placed it at the front entrance directly from my feed rack. It was a precautionary measure to avoid contaminating the banana in some strange, unknown way.

The bees never moved and appeared to have stayed there for most of the day. See photos for Sep 4th. 

Then the rain came overnight. It rained most of the night due to Dorian. Yet, the bees are still there. . . See droplets of rain on the ramp.



If the bees were exhibiting a hygienic behavior by eating away at the banana WHILE INSIDE THE HIVE, why do they continue to chew away at it at the entrance? 

Hygienic behavior would predicate that they would be happy to throw those remnants "overboard", and push them off the ramp. But they didn't in a 24hrs period, even in the rain.

*Conclusions* - anecdotal but still: Bees are "bananas" about banana!


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## texanbelchers (Aug 4, 2014)

I think they will take anything sweet in a dearth. Or, it may be an opportunistic source. They will also go for old figs if there is nothing else around.

However, back to the original question if the thread about behavior, they don't care if you eat bananas. If they are attracted to a ripe banana it is probably a food source, not an alarm.


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## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Well, I placed two very ripe peeled bananas on a plate in the back deck table. There was some bees activity, along with a few yellow jackets, but overall not the feeding frenzy I had expected. There are other nectar sources available so that may have had an impact, as well as proximity to the hives. The banana in this case was about 200 feet away from the apiary. Going to try pieces on the landing boards as luelle did.


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## herbhome (Oct 18, 2015)

Beregondo said:


> I had heard that too, so I suited up and peeled a banana in front of a hive.
> 
> The bees didn't care.
> At all.
> ...


I had a similar experience. I ate the whole banana in the apiary. A few curious bees came around to check it out but there wasn't any hostility. Perhaps smelling like alarm pheromone to us (humans) doesn't smell the same to them.

I also thought I would see if mine would eat bananas so I placed a few overripe ones in the beeyard and split them down the center. They didn't touch them for two days but when they did notice them they devoured all of the fruit. Evidentally the skin was of no interest.


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## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Tried something a little different today. I had some cut up bananas and strawberries mixed with sugar that had been for my son's smoothies. Berries started to go bad so what the heck, puree and give to bees. I think they like it.


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## luelle (Aug 20, 2019)

Hey! Thanks for sharing information. 

I tried something with an *overripe* banana yesterday. Though I can't say that I was very persistent with it. I could have tried it a few more times to see if the behavior repeated but didn't. Here's what I did.

I'm treating for Varroa so I'm refraining from feeding open food sources inside the hive - just precautionary. So I peeled the banana and put it on a piece of wax paper, cut in 2 length wise. I gently placed it at the hive entrance and waited a few minutes to see the bees climb on the banana, about a dozen of them within a minute. Then I took the whole paper, banana and bees, placed the whole thing about 4-5 feet away in the front of the hive, next to a water feature my bees visit daily. 

Unlike the other banana in my previous experiment, this one was not dried up. *Nor was it over ripe*. Maybe that has something to do with the difference in behavior.

A few hours later, I went back out to check on the banana. Flies had taken it over. The bees had vanished. They were still visiting the water hole, but the banana didn't keep their interest. It's been very dry here for the later part of the day - below 40% humidity. That, too, may play a role. 

I will attempt this again momentarily - I have a few more overripe bananas still. Out of curiosity, because I don't expect much activity. I've been feeding them heavy syrup. It's 88F with 42% humidity right now. My guess is that their lack of interest will be repeated but why not give it a try? 

Stay tuned! For fun. . .


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