# Lemongrass Oil Swarm Lure



## betrbekepn (Aug 7, 2006)

Buying swarm lure for next year. Lemongrass Oil? Lemon Oil? Lemon Myrtle Oil? Here's a quote from http://www.naturesgift.com/essential/descriptionh-l.htm "Many oils are classed as 'lemon' oils because of their aroma. Lemon oil itself is cold pressed from lemon peel and is actually less 'lemony' than many other oils because it contains only 3-10% of citral, the best known of the lemon scent components. Lemon myrtle, by contrast, contains 95% citral. I do not enjoy most "lemon-scented" oils. I am not a fan of lemongrass for example because it seems to lack the clarity of true lemon. This Lemon Myrtle is exquisite; as clear and clean as any lemon I have experienced." Are bees going to be attracted to 100% pure Lemon Myrtle Oil more than Lemon Oil\Lemongrass Oil? Also if catching swarms with deep hive body, how and where do I apply swarm lure?

[ September 27, 2006, 03:41 PM: Message edited by: betrbekepn ]


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## sierrabees (Jul 7, 2006)

What appeals to us may not appeal to our bees. Lemmon grass oil has a smell similar to some of the queens pherimones and that may be why it works so well. I would reccoment sticking to what has been tried and appears to work well. 

You might try putting our pairs of bait hives with lemon grass oil in one and your choice of alternatives in the other then see which hive the bees choose. I would be interested in seeing the results.


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## betrbekepn (Aug 7, 2006)

Here's a quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasonov "A synthetically produced Nasonov pheromone can be used to attract a swarm to an unoccupied hive or a swarm-catching box. It consists of citral and geraniol in a 2:1 ratio."


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## betrbekepn (Aug 7, 2006)

I emailed http://www.naturesgift.com/ today asking what essential oil has the highest concentration of Citral what essential oil has the highest concentration of Geraniol.

They replied, Lemon Myrtle is the highest concentration of citral to be found naturally, 
so that's what you would want. Of the 'moderately priced ' oils, Palma Rosa has by far the highest geraniol... normally btwn 70 and 85%. Those 
are the two you want.

Palma Rosa is a scented grass of the same family as Lemongrass

[ September 27, 2006, 08:20 PM: Message edited by: betrbekepn ]


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I don't know about Lemon Myrtle oil. I've never smelled it nor tried it as lure. Lemongrass oil works very well, and I can't imagine that it's going to work any better. A few drops of lemongrass oil is all the smell I want. More will run the bees out of a box. I wonder about the geranoil? I don't know if it's in lemograss oil or not.


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## betrbekepn (Aug 7, 2006)

I sent another email to http://www.naturesgift.com/ 


>Hello again
You may remember me from yesterday asking a odd question about essential oils and honey bee swarms. I have one more question, this one may be a little more difficult. What is the concentration of citral and geraniol in Lemongrass Oil. Example answer: Lemongrass oil = 20% citral, 10% geraniol, 70% other. Sorry for the questions but I can't find this kind of info on the internet. Thanks again for all your help!

http://www.naturesgift.com/ replied:

that depends on the individual batch.

for example, our high myrcene lemongrass has

geraniol  2.43%

citral is more complicated....
Citral, also known as geranial (citral a) or neral (citral b),

so... our high myrcene is
neral 
30.69
geranial 
41.94

it's only a GC/MS analysis that will give you the proportions in the oil 
you buy.

I've had other lemongrass that was:

neral 34.51
geranial 38.55
geraniol 4.02

there is no hard and fast answer.


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## Grant (Jun 12, 2004)

Michael,

You say, "A few drops of lemongrass oil is all the smell I want. More will run the bees out of a box."

Do you just drip the drops into the swarm trap? How long do you expect and/or hope the "lure" to last?

Grant
Jackson, MO


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Do you just drip the drops into the swarm trap?

I drip them on the middle of the top bars of the frames.

>How long do you expect and/or hope the "lure" to last?

It seems to last through the main swarm season here, which starts about the middle of May and runs until about the end of June. After that I can't say, that's when I catch most of them and I've been too lazy (busy?) to renew the oil until the next spring.


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## gdw (Sep 17, 2006)

I just did a quick google search for lemongrass oil and came up with too many variations to sort out easily. It seems to have a lot of uses but attracting bees didn't make the first cut. Can somebody give me a brand name and store - hopefully something easy like Walmart that can be found everywhere.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Anyplace with essential oils from plants has it. There are many on the internet.


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## jamiev (Sep 14, 2005)

my source for essential oils
http://www.frontiercoop.com/dspCatTxt.php?ct=anpceoeo&x=42


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## Dwight (May 18, 2005)

Health food stores usually carry it also.


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