On 25 May 2003 at 6:47, Paul D. Law (aka Dennis) wrote:

> On a show on the Food Network about preparing
> food for a picnic, one of the tips was:
> "Spread mint on your picnic cloth and you won't
> be bothered by bees."

Myth.  Bees aren't going to bother anyway, unless some honey is
exposed, and there is a severe drought, a hard frost, or some other
reason why there are no blooms. They prefer nectar.

It's almost always yellow jackets that come to the late summer and
fall picnics, not bees. I very much doubt mint would have any effect
with them either. They are creatures of habit. If it is a public picnic
place and they've been getting fed any kind of sugar, they'll be
there. If you are the first to picnic there, they probably will only be a
couple of curious ones, looking for sugar sources.

Yellow jackets get their sugar (for energy for their wings) from brood
secretions; the brood is fed insects. When they stop rearing brood in
August (or September in the South), they get crazed for sugar of
any kind.


Here's more:  http://goodbugpage.org/wonderful_wasps5.htm


Dave Green   SC  USA
The Pollination Home Page:  http://pollinator.com

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