Mark Hayward wrote:

>I too really enjoyed reading The Beemaster of Warrilow - very prosaic and it
>also contained some interesting snippets of information. One was how the
>Beemaster used oil of wintergreen smeared on himself to avoid getting
>stung >when trying to cut wild colonies from trees in the woods.  Has
>anyone tried >this and does it work?? Anything to avoid a few stings from
>those nasty >colonies.

Bill Morong countered:

Please be careful.  Oil of wintergreen can be absorbed through the skin.
Though harmless in small doses, as when used as a flavoring, in sufficient
quantity it can be toxic, even fatal.

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   Quite some time ago, an old man who had kept bees in Russia told me that
they had used clove oil smeared on their hands to calm the bees.  I tested
it out.  Even though clove is very expensive, I learned that it can be
diluted  a great amount with regular alcohol (ethanol), and it still worked
out very well for me.

   For a time I thought of patenting it under the trade name, E-Z-B and
going into business.  However, other more pressing matters intervened, and
I never got arount to it.

   I suspect such compounds work in the same manner as how smoke may work
--- by hampering the odor sensing ability of bees for a short while.

                                                Adrian



Adrian M. Wenner                    (805) 963-8508 (home phone)
967 Garcia Road                     (805) 893-8062  (UCSB FAX)
Santa Barbara, CA  93106

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*
*     "The history of physics is the history of giving up cherished ideas."

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*                               Andrew Strominger, Harvard physicist (1999)
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