Bees are attracted using different kinds of scents. The reason for attracting bees is that sometimes you may want to relocate the bees to a different home or location. The scent helps find the place of the queen bee and go to that new area without any hassle.
You may ask if lemongrass attracts bees. Let us answer the question and provide you with some information regarding this as well.
Does lemongrass attract bees?
Lemongrass attracts bees. This is used by many beekeepers. It works as a pheromone of the Queen bee. This bee attracts the other bees of the nest to go to any place needed. This hormone is found in lemongrass. Therefore, lemongrass can attract bees easily without any issue and works perfectly.
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Bees are called intelligent animals. They can do many things with care and attention. They tend to have a significant amount of teamwork in order to accomplish many tasks they need to complete. It is seen that there are some rules that the bees follow when they are in a colony.
Bees stay together in their colony. In a colony, there is a bee called the ‘Queen’. This Queen is everything for them. The bee tries to keep the Queen safe from all kinds of harm and stays along with her. This ‘Queen’ bee is fed by the other bees and they also take care of her.
The Queen bee usually releases a hormone called Pheromone. This hormone contains various ingredients. Among those ingredients, Citral and Geraniol are found. These ingredients control the swarm of bees and keep them in the pack.
It also attracts the bees to be near their colony and near the Queen as well
The lemongrass has these two key elements a lot. Therefore, lemongrass can attract bees a lot and lure them into various places by beekeepers and others as well. There are two main elements of lemongrass. Let us discuss which can attract bees the most:
Lemongrass essential oil:
Lemongrass essential oil attracts bees the most. It is found that lemongrass essential oil contains a lot of Citral and Geranial. Therefore, it can mimic the Queen bee’s hormone which attracts bees.
Lemongrass plant:
Lemongrass plants do not attract bees. Lemongrass trees cannot spread the Pheromone that is required to attract the bees at a high concentration. Therefore, it cannot attract bees directly.
Do bees like lemongrass?
Bees like lemongrass a lot. Bees are found to swarm at certain places. The reason is the Pheromone released by the Queen bee. The bees of a colony swarm the place where the Pheromone is coming from.
This Pheromone attracts the bees nerve system a lot and makes the bees fly to the place of origin.
Pheromones are made with various kinds of ingredients. Among them, Citral and Geraniol are the most commonly found ones. These ingredients are found at a high concentration in the lemongrass. It can be found in large concentrations at the essential oil of the lemongrass.
These elements that are found in the lemongrass attract bees the most.
Bees attract a lot where there is a high concentration of Citral and Geranial. These elements mimic the Pheromone of the Queen bee and attract bees in swarms. Thus, bees like lemongrass for this particular reason.
Why are bees attracted to lemongrass?
Bees are attracted to lemongrass. There are a few particular reasons why bees are attracted to lemongrass. If you want to know the reasons, here are those that you need to know:
Contains high amount of Citral & Geraniol:
The lemongrass is said to contain high amounts of Citral and Geranial. This is found mostly in the lemongrass essential oil which is extracted from the lemongrass itself. These ingredients attract the bees of a swarm to come to any other hole or colony.
These two ingredients create a lot of attraction among bees. Hence, bees are attracted to lemongrass.
Mimics the Queen bee’s Pheromone:
Lemongrass trees can mimic the Queen bee’s Pheromone. The Queen bee releases a special hormone that attracts the swarm of bees in the colony to come to any other place.
Lemongrass essential oil tends to mimic this Pheromone naturally and attracts bees of any swarm or hive to go to any place where the concentration of the Pheromone is high. This is why bees are attracted to lemongrass.
How much lemongrass oil to use to attract bees?
You need to use 1 – 2 drops of lemongrass oil to attract bees. Pheromone is a highly active material. Although the amount you may find is minimal, it can spread a lot to the right target without any issue in the shortest amount of time.
Queen bee actually releases a tiny amount of Pheromone when it is in danger or charging location. The bees can detect that tiny amount of Pheromone at a long distance and swarm to the place where the Pheromone is coming from.
Therefore, it can be said that a small amount of Pheromone is enough to attract bees.
Lemongrass oil is also an alternative for the Queen bee pheromone. It can mimic the Pheromone of the Queen bee exactly and can attract bees. Therefore, it will only require a few drops of the lemongrass tree in order to attract them.
You will only need 1 – 2 drops worth of lemongrass oil to attract bees. This is equivalent to around less than 1 ml.
How does lemongrass essential oil help honey bees?
Lemongrass essential oil helps honey bees in various ways. Lemongrass essential oil has been used as a swarm trap for many years. This has various kinds of use for honey bees. Among them, attracting the honey bees to food sources is an ideal example of how it helps.
To produce the highest amount of honey in the shortest amount of time, honey bees are attracted to flowers and honey collecting sources using the lemongrass essential oil.
This oil helps the honey bees find their source of food in the shortest amount of time, whatever the distance is.
Lemongrass essential oil also helps honey bees to find their new home. When it is time to collect honey, this is used as a pheromone swarm trap.
The honey bees are relocated to their new home using the help of the oil and honey can be collected due to the absence of honey bees in their existing home.
How do you attract bees with lemongrass?
Lemongrass is the best way to attract bees to any other place of your choice. If you want to use this to attract bees, here are the steps that you will have to follow:
Collect the lemongrass essential oil:
Before you start, you will need to purchase some lemongrass essential oil. This can be found at any store. You can also collect this oil from lemongrass following some simple steps.
After you extract the lemongrass oil, store it in a small bottle. You will need only a few drops in this case.
Find an ideal place to move the bees:
After you collect the lemongrass essential oil, find a suitable spot where you want to move the bees. It can be a tree hole or an artificially made beehive. Make sure that the place that you are choosing is not close to any houses where people are living.
It may create problems if you choose a place near any house.
Use some lemongrass essential oil:
Use a dropper and put 1 – 2 drops of lemongrass essential oil that you have purchased or made by yourself. 1 – 2 drops may sound to be a tiny amount. But this is enough to attract the bees and come to your selected area.
What attracts bees to make a hive?
Bees are attracted to a special kind of chemical agent called Pheromone. This is released by the Queen bee of the colony that they live in.
Whenever the Queen bee releases this chemical agent, the bees of the colony swarm to the Queen to keep it protected, provide it food, make a hive for it to live and many more.
But there are many artificial pheromone agents that can also attract the bees to make a hive. Here are some notable names that can attract bees to make a hive:
- Rosemary and Thyme Effusion
- Lavender oil
- Wintergreen
- Eucalyptus
- Peppermint
- Menthol
- Tea tree oil
- Spearmint
- Thymol
Final Thoughts
Lemongrass does attract bees. Beekeepers have used it for a long time over generations. As it has the ingredients to mimic the Pheromone of the Queen bee of a beehive, it can lure in bees using the active ingredients of this oil. Although there are alternatives, this is the most effective one.