ATTACK BEES? BEES AS WEAPONS!!??

[fiveson]

I am a documenary producer by trade. I am researching something for Nat Geo and came across an article on new "crowd control" methods - I found this.

Pheromones: The chemical substances released by animals to influence physiology or behavior of other members of the same species. One use of pheromones, at the most elemental level, could be to mark target individuals and then release bees to attack them.

As a (novice) beekeeper I thought it sounded ridiculous.... then I remembered the business about the bees sending out alarm smells and wondered how real could this bee.... any thoughts????

Makes me think of (was it) Austin Powers and his threat to use a gun that shoots bees....

[Jerrymac]

So you've never seen this?

http://www.beesource.com/pov/weapon.htm

[Michael Bush]

I have on RARE occasions been targeted by a field bee that was foraging because I had alarm pheromone on me, but that is a very rare occurance.  It woulnd't be very effective unless the person was near the hive.

[fiveson]

No I have never seen that. How much of this do you think is true? Seems like a daffy idea when you think about it - if you had a choice between lobbing in a grenade or a bunch of bees to get the enemy out - wouldnt you pick thye grenade?

Then again the AF does  fire frozen chickens from a special weapon at jet canopy's to test them......

This actually plays well into a proposal I have floating around called "Oddities Of War".

[Horns Pure Honey]

2 years ago my friends little sister was stung many times by bees when whereing banana scented sunblock. I never thought about it since I dint know anything about bees. Now I know that they attacked her becuase there pheramon for deffense is a banana oil scent. :)

[Michael Bush]

Banana scent on body lotions, including sunblock, do seem like a bad idea don't they?

[Horns Pure Honey]

Yeah, you think they would have checked things out like that.