# Has anyone heard of this?



## Chickieeeee (Mar 26, 2006)

I was doing some research online and came across a site that said if you are trying to capture a swarm to spray a small amount of lemon furniture polish on the inside of a hive and they are attracted to it. Another site said to take some lemon balm and rub it in the hive. I have never heard of this and was curious if anyone has ever tried either of these methods.

The furniture polish...I'm not so sure of that one. Besides I heard that bees don't like their furniture polished, they like it waxed! :bash:


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## sugarbush (Jul 15, 2007)

Lemon Pledge or lemmon grass oil extract..... It has a simular chemical compisition as queen pheromone so it does work as an attractant for swarm traps.


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

How exactly would that work? I mean, when a swarm is looking for a new home they have their own queen with them. They can't be engineered to go look for a home where a queen pheremone is already present, now can they? Is it going to confuse them so that they abandon their own queen?


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## madness (Dec 6, 2006)

If you urinate in a swarm box, it will be easier to get them too. Mmmm.....urine.


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## sugarbush (Jul 15, 2007)

Ernie said:


> How exactly would that work? I mean, when a swarm is looking for a new home they have their own queen with them. They can't be engineered to go look for a home where a queen pheremone is already present, now can they? Is it going to confuse them so that they abandon their own queen?


There has been alot of scientific research on it that shows it works. I would dig it up for you and post a link, but I have a screaming newborn in my arms who did not sleep all night...........if you go over to beesource and search lemon grass oil or lemon pledge you will find 100s of results.

I am not sure if anybody knows the mode of action, but I think the theory is that like AHB, domestic honey bees prefer to over take a week colony than start from scratch when they swarm.... the pheremone tricks them into thinking that another colony lived there before.


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

Rather than the queen pheromone, I think it is the nasanov pheromone that it mimics. The smell that bees use to attract the others to a particular place.

It is used when swarming, or if the colony is disturbed, as in a removal. The scout bees leave it on the new location they find, to guide the swarm to it.
When hiving a swarm, you will see the bees fanning on the front of the hive. They are releasing nosanov and sending it into the air to attract the stragglers to the new hive.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

The man who taught me about beew went to South America, where he admired some lemon grass that was growing there. He also touched it.

THEN, he stroked his beard, which was probably a mistake as a swarm of bees tried to land on his beard.

He said it was....interesting.....


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## OkieDavid (Jan 15, 2007)

ding ding ding....We have winner!!! Iddee nailed it. Capture your first swarm (off say a tree limb, fence etc..) and as soon as you have the queen, they others will begin fanning the nasanov phermone....Smells EXACTLY like lemon pledge to me (which is the lemon grass smell) and will fill the air. By having it in a swarm trap, scout bees will pick up the scent and investigate the source....By attracting the scouts to YOUR perfect in every way new home, you're more likely to attract a swarm. You are not actually trying to attract the swarm....you're trying to attract the scout(s).


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## reginabee (May 15, 2008)

I saw in a catalog, I think walter t kelley, something called bee charm which is used as a bee swarm attractant.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I understood it is the smell of the beeswax inside the super that attracts the bees in -because of the phermones....kind of like furniture polish? i am not sure that you need the furniture polish if you have the beeswax inside.


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