They may fly at your face or buzz around over your head. These warning signs should be heeded, since the bees may be telling you that you have come into their area and are too close to their colony for comfort both theirs and yours!
1) If a bee "bumps into" you, it's not an accident. Run. If a colony of bees thinks you're a predator, it first sends out a few guard bees to warn you away by "head butting" you, according to a guide by the U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service's Saguaro National Park.
Alarm pheromone is a releaser and smells like ripe bananas. Bees produce alarm pheromone when they sting, or when they open the sting chamber at the tip of their abdomens. Even if you can't smell bananas, you can identify the posture of an alarmed bee: her abdomen is pointing straight up and her stinger is visible.
Consequently, bees can smell these chemicals our bodies release. Individual bees that detect the fear pheromone communicate quickly to nearby bees about the threat. Bees defend their hive to protect their space. Therefore, they attack people when they feel threatened.
Bees do sting, occasionally. However, they usually only sting if they feel threatened.
A worker honey bee typically only stings if threatened, or if you are near its hive. An exception to this rule is the Africanized worker bee, which is known to be more aggressive. Africanized bees may sting with less provocation than it would take for a regular honey bee to sting.
Know what to do when a bee is near you: Don't swat at it or you could send it into defense mode. Rather, calmly move away in a straight line until you reach an enclosed shelter. Even then, some more aggressive bees may still sting you. Don't try to hide from bees by diving into water.
They have aggressive tendencies and are overprotective of the hive. Often when you have cranky bees, you will be unable to get near the hive or you will get stung. Sometimes these bees chase you for just being within eyesight of the hive.
Bees are generally very docile as they go about their work. Unless you do something really outrageous, such as step on them, they will generally not bother you.
* Bees decide whether to sting, or not to sting based on the presence and concentration of an alarm pheromone. The likelihood for each bee to sting depends on the pheromone concentration and is highest at intermediate concentrations.
Honeybees, wasps, hornets, fire ants, and yellowjackets may look different and have different homes, but they all sting when they are upset! If a person is stung by any of these insects, the sting will feel a lot like a shot at the doctor's office.
If you encounter stinging bees and are a long way from shelter, try to run through shrubs or brush to distract the bees. If there is no shelter nearby, keep running until you leave the bees behind. Some bees may pursue victims a half mile or more before giving up the chase. Don't be fooled into seeking escape in water.
Do not jump into a body of water. That not only increases the chances that you will get stung when coming up for air, but also your risk of drowning, experts say. Angry bees may wait for you to come out and can track you via bubbles of carbon dioxide you might release when underwater, Nieh said.
Angry bees tend to zip quickly through the air, sometimes even bouncing off your veil. Extremely agitated bees will cluster around your head. They react to your carbon dioxide and tend to go towards your face. You may even see some cling to the mesh and press their abdomens into it in an attempt to sting.
Bees also have a distaste for lavender oil, citronella oil, olive oil, vegetable oil, lemon, and lime. These are all topical defenses you can add to your skin to keep bees away. Unlike other flying insects, bees are not attracted to the scent of humans; they are just curious by nature.
Our colleagues and friends from other queen producing companies report the same; queens, whatever their genetics, simply don't sting humans. In the miniscule times where it has been reported that a queen actually has stung a person, we have heard that the sting is not as painful to a person as that of a worker bee.
Wear clothing to cover as much of the body as possible. Avoid flowering plants when possible. Keep work areas clean. Social wasps thrive in places where humans discard food.
Late summer and early fall, bees, especially yellow jackets, and wasps, become very aggressive because their life cycle is coming to an end. There are not enough resources or food for them to survive, especially as the winter approaches.
Cover your face with whatever is handy, if you can do so without impairing your vision. Never jump into a body of water to escape bees. They will wait for you to surface.
Honeybees generally attack only to defend their colony, but will also attack if they are seriously disturbed outside the nest. Common sources of attack stimulus for honeybees include alarm pheromone, vibrations, carbon dioxide, hair, and dark colors (Crane 1990).
It is best to allow the bee to remain outside, where it can get access to nectar and pollen from flowers. If you have no suitable plant pot available, then you could place the bee in a shoe box, ensure there are sufficient air holes so that it can breathe.
If you look or smell like a flower, you are more likely to attract the attention of a bee. They love the smell of some sunscreens, shampoos, perfumes and aftershaves. They also love flowery prints and shiny jewelry and buckles.
Many people are afraid of bees, but if you leave them alone, they will not hurt you. Bees sting when they think their queen, food, or nest is in danger.
The worker bees of a hive can sting only once, because the stinger is barbed and the bees cannot remove it without pulling out their abdominal tissue. Bumblebees have smooth stingers that are easy to remove, so these bees can sting more than once, BeeSpotter reports.