Many sources point out the chemical similarity between bee alarm
pheromone and the smell of bananas, and imply or recommend that
beekeepers avoid eating bananas.  I'll quote Jürgen Tautz in "The Buzz
about Bees" (2008 Springer):

  The main component of the alarm pheromone is isopentylacetate,
  a chemical responsible for the smell of ripe bananas.  For this
  reason, it is not recommended to eat bananas in the direct vicinity
  of a beehive, unless one wishes to test the effect - on oneself - 
  of alarming the bees.

I'm trying to find out whether there's actual evidence that eating
bananas, or having a compost barrel containing banana peels near
the hive, significantly increases the likelihood of my getting
stung while handling my bees.  I tried querying Google Scholar
for "isoamyl acetate apis mellifera" or "isopentylacetate apis
mellifera", but the first few dozen hits had little of practical
immediate value to me in this respect.

A regular Google search for "bees and bananas" revealed a much more
practical bunch of articles, but the information was essentially
anecdotal, when it wasn't frankly weird, alarmist, or obviously
incorrect.  Even the more reliable-sounding information was pretty
much all over the map, from a fellow who reported waxing his car
with a substance containing "banana wax" (?) and having his car
attacked by bees, to people who eat bananas right next to their
beehives and don't notice any change in behaviour of the bees.
Perhaps the fellow who wrote that "your bees are not my bees" said
it best, implying that some bees are more sensitive than others to
particular smells.

Is anyone on this list aware of any studies having been done on
this? Any interesting anecdotes?  Any ideas on a reasonable test
I could do without sacrificing myself?  Perhaps if I put (or wave?)
two pieces of black felt in front of the hive, where one has some
banana crushed onto it, and see if one piece of felt ends up with more
stingers than the other?

For the past two summers, I've avoided eating bananas, just in case
it "annoyed" the bees, but I don't want to deprive myself any further
if it isn't necessary!

Anne.

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