Sorry I don't have time to be brief...
 
Someone asked about repellents for bees a couple of days ago--
it's a pretty open-ended question and would require further
diaolgue to determine what answer is really desired (something to
drive bees out of supers like benzaldehyde or butyric anhydride?
or something to keep bees from landing on your skin-- dousing
oneself with smoke before opening a hive will work and I've used
hickory barbecue smoke flavoring available at good grocery stores
[as far as I can tell just an aqueous solution of smoke] as a
lotion on top of clothing when I've needed to work a really nasty
hive or tackle wasps' nests when a smoker was inconvenient.
 
I've heard cassava (manioc) leaves will do the same (original
posting was from somewhere 'foreign' from where I sit but can't
remember if it was tropical or not):
 
Sosu, Francis.  "Cassava Leaves As Bee Repellent."  Newsletter
for Beekeepers in Tropical and Subtropical Countries, March 1985.
 
 
Anyway, decided to address the issue since the following came
across the net on another service to which I subscribe:
 
SPRAY TO CONTROL AFRICANIZED BEES (123  AP 3/16) -- The article
says peoplemay defend themselves from swarming attacks by
Africanized honeybees by spraying a cloud of mosquito repellent.
A USDA scientist said the chemical DEET, in mosquito repellent,
keeps the bees at bay and will give a person time to escape.
 
DEET MOST EFFECTIVE WAY OF KEEPING KILLER BEES AT BAY
 
WESLACO, Texas (AP)   Scientists have discovered that spraying a
cloud of mosquito repellent may ward off swarming attacks from
``killer bees.'']
 
     Africanized honeybees are hybrids and more aggressive than
the European honey bees that are dominant in the United States.
They swarm more quickly and form larger colonies than common
bees.]
 
     Since migrating to South Texas in 1990, the so-called killer
bees have caused serious injuries and deaths. In some attacks, a
person or animal will be stung by hundreds of bees.]
 
     Frank Eischen, a visiting scientist with the U.S. Department
of Agriculture Honeybee Center in Weslaco, said the chemical
DEET, the active ingredient in commercial mosquito repellent, is
the most effective of any yet developed to keep the Africanized
honeybee at bay.]
 
     ``It doesn't work in the traditional method of applying it
to your skin,'' Eischen said. ``But when bees are trying to
intimidate you or acting in a menacing manner, spraying it until
you create a cloud keeps them from coming forward for a while,
which gives you the chance to get away before they attack.'']
 
     Eischen suggests that those doing yard work carry mosquito
repellent with them.]
 
     ``Bees frequently give a warning. Sometimes they come
eyeball to eyeball with you. It is an attempt by them in a polite
way to say, `This is my territory,''' he said. ``Most us just
continue on our merry way, not understanding the signal, and the
next thing we know they're pretty hostile.'']
 
     Spring and summer are when most killer bee attacks occur, he
said.]
 
     ``People are out mowing their lawns and raking leaves and
the bees are getting stronger and there are more of them,'' he
said.]
 
     Africanized bees interbreed easily with their European
counterparts. Even experts have trouble distinguishing between
them.]
 
     ``I have always advocated never trusting any bee unless it's
working a flower,'' Eischen said. ``Then they are generally not
interested in a human or anything else.''
 
FARMERS LEARN TO LIVE WITH `KILLER BEES]
 
     WASHINGTON (AP)   When those dread ``killer bees'' began
heading northward from Brazil a quarter-century ago, headlines
buzzed with undocumented tales of terror.]
 
     It's been 5 1/2 years since the creatures   technically,
Africanized honey bees   first crossed the Rio Grande into the
United States, and they have not lived up to their billing.]
 
     ``Africanized honey bees are actually a far cry from the
image of the fearsome marauders constantly hunting for human
victims that media hype has created,'' Hachiro Shimanuki writes
in the March issue of Agricultural Research magazine.]
 
     ``What is true is that they are more defensive and generally
will sting more   with less provocation   than the
European-descended honey bees that are common in the United
States.'']
 
     The hybrids are causing some problems for U.S. farmers. They
are harder to transport to fields and orchards because of their
temperament. They don't store as much honey as the more-common
European varieties. In fact, an Agriculture Department study of
the killer bees in Mexico discovered that if they are overly
disturbed in their hives they will leave and take their honey
with them.]
 
     Farmers in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Puerto
Rico and St. Croix, Virgin Islands, are having to learn to live
with the hybrid bees. There is no way to wipe them out without
killing the European bees that are essential to agriculture.]
 
     More than 90 crops   about $20 billion worth a year
require pollination by honey bees. ``One mouthful in three of the
U.S. diet directly or indirectly involves bee-pollinated crops,''
USDA notes.]
 
     USDA scientists found that swarms of feral bees became
Africanized very quickly when the hybrids moved into Mexico. In
1988, none of the sampled swarms were Africanized; in less than
three years, nearly 100 percent were.]
 
     Less than six years after Texas was invaded, the bee
population is highly Africanized. And beekeepers there are having
to deal with it.]
 
     ``I'm wearing gloves now all the time, when I used to handle
bees with bare hands,'' William Vanderput of Pharr, Texas, told
Agricultural Research. ``The Africanized bee is unpredictable;
you don't know when or what provokes them. These bees are
moody.'']
 
     Vanderput said the invasion has raised his costs by as much
as 25 percent. He uses the recommended method of minimizing
Africanization   routinely replacing the queen bees in a colony
with queens that have not bred with the killer bees.]
 
     USDA researchers at Weslaco, Texas, are using the Mexican
experience to test chemicals that might keep the killer bees away
from humans. The best they've found so far are common mosquito
repellents.]
 
     But there's a catch: The chemicals have to be sprayed in a
fine mist directly onto the bees. ``Just spraying your clothes
didn't do any good,'' said entomologist Anita Collins.]
 
     Jose Santos Rodriguez, who manages 1,600 bee colonies in
Allende, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, says the killer bees force him to
wear a veil and gloves, but he isn't scared. He's even found
something good to say about the hybrids: ``People who used to
steal some of my honey don't anymore.''
 
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