# Smells that bees typically hate



## Cameron Daley (Mar 25, 2013)

I plan on conducting my two week inspection after I get off of work today. I did my best to plan ahead and I went so far as to apply "unscented" deodorant this morning and did not apply any aftershave or cologne. I figured that the smell of Irish Spring and Dove shampoo would have faded sufficiently by this afternoon. However, just before I was planning on leaving work, I realized I hadn't cleaned my gun since my last day at the range, so without thinking, I just cleaned it. So now I smell strongly of gun oil. I will still conduct my inspection as planned, but I think I might be more noticeable to my bees now.

My question for the more experienced beeks is whether there are obvious smells that bees notice and disagree with or if the "no strong smells cause bees hate it" rule is more of a philosophy or myth or something?


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## millerdrr (Dec 5, 2012)

Maybe it's just me, but they don't seem to care whether I just stepped out of the shower or if I just spent the morning doing landscaping work. Most aggressive responses have been because I did something to provoke them. I've gotten pretty good about handling them gently and not casting shadows, but I think I've been keeping hives open too long. After about ten minutes, they start getting a bit aggressive and they don't calm down, so I'm trying to think of ways to be more efficient.

I've read that the scent of bananas can provoke them to sting, but I don't think I've ever eaten bananas before opening a hive.


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## thenance007 (May 25, 2011)

We know they hate the smell of artificial almond extract because that is the odor they use in the natural "Bee Gone" to drive them down from the honey supers.


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## Chemguy (Nov 26, 2012)

There is a common solvent (in spray paint, some other paints, some nail polishes) called butyl acetate. This mimics the attack pheromone, though is not as effective. Effective enough, however.


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## peterlapierre (Mar 13, 2013)

Get a bottle of wintergreen scented rubbing alcohol and rub it on your hands before going in the hive smells great and covers any scent you may have


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## tsmullins (Feb 17, 2011)

Cameron Daley said:


> My question for the more experienced beeks is whether there are obvious smells that bees notice and disagree with or if the "no strong smells cause bees hate it" rule is more of a philosophy or myth or something?


My bees seem to really dislike the smell of coffee. Once my cousin had some type of sunscreen on. The bees really did NOT like that scent. They followed him around for some time.


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## R Dewhurst (Dec 22, 2012)

blow your breath down in the middle of a full hive. My first mistake made trying to move a bee out of the way.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

> Once my cousin had some type of sunscreen on.

Probably banana


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