Honey bee pheromones
Honey Bees use pheromones, or chemical communication, for almost all
behaviors of life. Such uses include, but are not limited to: mating,
alarm, defense, orientation, kin and colony recognition, food production,
and integration of colony activities. Pheromones are, thus, essential
to Honey Bees for their survival. Some Honey Bee pheromones include:
* Nasnov pheromones.
o These are used for orientation and include Geraniol, Nerolic acid, and
Geranic acid. Bees use these to find the entrance to their colony or hive,
and they release them on flowers so other bees know which flowers have
nectar.
* Footprint pheromones.
o These are left by bee feet when they walk and are useful in enhancing
Nasnov peromones in searching for nectar.
* Alarm pheromones.
o These can be released voluntarily by a bee when it senses danger or
when a bee stings another animal. This pheromone attracts other bees to
the location and causes the other bees to behave defensively, i.e. sting
or charge. This is why you usually are stung multiply times if a bee hive
is near.
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