> FWIW, I have painted one (1) queen using a nice purple shade of
> fingernail polish.  The workers immediately balled her dead.  At the
> club, I was then told to use only plastic modelling paint.  (I think it
> was the color...  ;-))
 
I had the same experience (well, it was *red* rather than *purple*,
but the queen ended equally dead).  Some years later had the
explanation that the evaporating part of most fingernail polishes was
a sort of acetone (or do I mean acetate - I'm *not* chemically
minded, really), and that chemically it was very similar to the bees'
alarm pheromone.  So I've always given the lay person's explanation
of that is why not to use finger nail polish.  I've later had near
perfect results from typist correction fluid (invented, for those
who want misc facts to plug up their brains with, by the mother of
Mike Nesbith, one of the Monkees - if that requires more explanation,
please don't ask me).  In only one of several hundred instances did
the bees just chew it right off her (didn't harm her, seemingly).  In
the other cases, it does wear somewhat, but it lasted the two years
required.
 
 
  (\      Nick Wallingford
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