Hi all
 
Just got back to the list so this post is to stuff from a while back:
 
Donald Aiken wrote in response to my post about having tried to kill
a swarm that had been aggravated with H2S and it having gone very
quite instead of dying.
 
> In a really peculiar coincidence,  on Tuesday I was taking the last
>supers from a yard of bees that is about 100 yards (meters?) from a
>gas well that was being serviced. This field is a sour gas field,
>and there was a mild smell of H2S carried to us on the wind which
>was blowing directly from the rig toward me. I remarked on how
>peaceful my bees were when I got home but I did not make the
>connection with the H2S. The concentration was extremely low, so the
>effect must be quite powerful. extremely low, so the effect must be
>quite powerful.
 
I asked around a bit about H2S and aparently, the point at which it
becomes toxic to a person is when you can no longer smell it.
Apparently it binds to certain active sites in enzymes with metal
ions in or something to that effect.
 
When one uses smoke, there must be a certain amount of CO carbon
monoxide that would have a similat effect, but to a lessor degree to
that of H2S.
 
What I would be interested to know is if anybody has noticed this
peacefulness of the bees near other sources of either of these
gases as well or any other gases such as hydrogen cyanide (gold mines
in Canada and Australia?) and maybe near highways and so on. It often
has intrigued me that a hive in the middle of my town is extremely
passive even al;though it is directly above a busy road in an oak
tree? Could this be a factor? The bees response to anger is blind
because all their receptor sites for anger pheremones are blocked
with some or other particle?
 
Just a thought.
 
Keep well
 
Garth
 
 
 
---
Garth Cambray       Kamdini Apiaries
15 Park Road        Apis melifera capensis
Grahamstown         800ml annual precipitation
6139
Eastern Cape
South Africa               Phone 27-0461-311663
 
3rd year Biochemistry/Microbiology    Rhodes University
In general, generalisations are bad.
Interests: Flii's and Bees.