Hi, all.



Contrary to Dave Cushman, my belief that (except in special situations, irrelevant to “suicide bees”) honeybees are not attracted to just any black spot (like eyes) is based on both evolutionary considerations and personal experience. From an evolutionary point of view, just consider that nature is full of dark spots of any size. If “suicide bees” (described as angry bees) were to be attracted to just any dark spot (or even just any dark spot the size of a human eye) they would end up wasting a tremendous amount of time and energy in futile activities, while being deterred from doing what they need to do. Evolution is not goal directed. Nonetheless it would most probably soon eliminate any tendency towards such wasteful behavior.



As for personal experience, I do have experience in beekeeping, and like Dave and most other beekeepers, I have had bees fly “in my face”, i.e. fly for a while very close to my face right in front of it. As I noted in an earlier message, there is no reason to exclude the possibility that they are simply attracted by the motion of your eyes, because even if you freeze, you tend to keep your eyes glued to a moving bee that is flying “in your face”. I am not aware that beekeepers with light-blue eyes are spared the experience of having bees “fly in their face”. And I have never had bees actually try to fly into my eyes (as they seem to do in the case of the “eye” of a lit smoker).  If Dave has ever seen angry bees flying to just any other dark spot, or any other dark spot the size of a human eye, I would like to hear about it.









Sincerely,

Ruth Rosin ("prickly pear")

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