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(photo source: Pixabay) Beekeepers around the world seem to do the same thing: smoke bees before opening their hives.

Why smoke the bees? | Wiki has been a tradition for at least hundreds of years. During the Native American period, people began to burn a white round mushroom (Maberaceae) and use its smoke to fumigate bees. Today's Nepalese also collect wild honey directly with smoke from smoldering rods.

And these beekeepers all think that smoking bees can calm them down.

In order to make it easier for bees to smoke, in the 19th century, Moses Quimby, the "father of beekeeping" in the United States, invented a professional device: the bee smoker. There is a heater inside the device, which burns plants and then produces smoke from the mouth. Today, many beekeepers are still using his designs.

Photo Source: Wiki, however, is this method reliable after all? Do bees really like to smoke?

The honeybee hive is like a small society in which the queen bee, worker bee and Xiongfeng perform their respective duties and carry out their work in an orderly manner. And what makes them go to work well is the pheromones they secrete.

Through different pheromones, they can perform a variety of activities, such as loss, defense, reproduction, and so on. In the event of danger, the "guard bees" on their doorstep will release an "alarm pheromone" and flap their wings to spread the pheromones, allowing the bees at home to come out quickly.

Fight?! Fight! | Giphy worker bees who received the "alarm" immediately entered the combat state and began to rush out of the nest to look for threats, chase the threatened targets, and even attack with their own spikes. The active components that play a major role in "alarm pheromone" are isoamyl acetate (IPA) and 2-nonyl alcohol.

Some studies have found that if the content of IPA is low, the attack power of bees will be greatly reduced.

Highly aggressive Africanized bees (also known as killer bees) are very fierce and often chase threats in droves, sometimes as far as hundreds of meters. European bees are more docile. It was found that the "alarm pheromone" of African honeybees contained twice as much IPA as European honeybees and higher levels of other ingredients.

More aggressive killer bees Wiki researchers have also found that the combination of these pheromones works better. The synergistic effect of IPA and its derivatives is like stacking several layers of buff for African bees.

Coming back to the question of smoking for bees, it is not difficult to see that smoke calms bees and acts as an "anesthetic", which actually disturbs the alarm pheromones of the bees themselves.

However, there is still a lot of controversy as to how it was disturbed. Some people say that the strong smell of bee smoke can mask pheromones, making it difficult for bees to distinguish between chemicals, thus preventing them from entering combat mode.

Others say that the smoke is actually a simulation of a forest fire. When bees find a fire, they abandon their hives and beekeepers can collect honey.

However, if you understand the characteristics of some plants, you may be able to hypnotize bees more effectively.

The researchers used two materials to produce smoke: one is the burlap commonly used by beekeepers, and the other is dried hops (hops, which are often added to beer). Although both can hypnotize bees, hops smoke is more effective.

Hops (also known as hops) Wiki first of all, the burning of hops produces a thick green smoke, which calms the bees. Second, the researchers speculated that the hops themselves would have an advantage. Female hops contain secondary metabolites that may have some sedative effects. Purified hops extract can reduce the excitability of some nerve endings, so it may also affect bees.

But I have to say that although letting bees smoke can really calm them down, this method is also temporary. If you want to avoid being stung, you still have to wear a full set of professional beekeeping protective clothing.

Reference:

[1] Gage, Stephanie L., et al. "Smoke conditions affect the release of the venom droplet accompanying sting extension in honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae)." Journal of insect science 18.4 (2018): 7.

[2] Bortolotti, Laura, and Cecilia Costa. "Chemical communication in the honey bee society." Neurobiology of chemical communication (2014)

[3] Wang, Zhengwei, and Ken Tan. "Honey bee alarm pheromone mediates communication in plant-pollinator-predator interactions." Insects 10.10 (2019): 366.

This article is from the official Wechat account: take Science Home (ID:steamforkids), written by: Skin, revision: a Xian

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