My last post was pretty vague.  Here is more - from
articles on file:
 
A 1979 paper by Pomeroy and Plowright states that worker
bumblebees that were knocked out with CO2 later ejected
larvae from their nest.  The bees seemed to have stopped doing
this after about a day.  This is bumblebees, not honeybees.
 
The other article, by Ribbands in 1950, is on honeybees that were
anesthetized with nitrogen gas, CO2, or chloroform.
Apparently the bees treated with N2 or CO2 thereafter stopped
collecting pollen, although they had been before and it was
available, and collected only nectar.  The chloroform bees
didn't seemed to be changed.
 
Comments:
1. The fact that they changed from pollen to nectar might not
necessarily be bad, from the beekeeper's point of view.
 
2. Neither of these papers studied ammonium nitrate, the chemical
asked about by the person who posted saying it was used in Africa.
 
3. Both papers are pretty old.  Surely there must have been more
recent work done on calming down honeybee hives.  Does anyone
know more?  I am wondering mostly about bumblebees myself, but
honeybees too.
 
 
 
Liz Day
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Indianapolis, Indiana, central USA