Science / Medicine : Queen Bee’s Allure Based on Intoxicant

Canadian researchers have discovered that the key to a queen bee’s allure is a five-chemical intoxicant that induces loyalty and increased production among her worker bees. The discovery has great practical implications for agriculture and insect control, said Keith Slessor, who has studied the queen bee mystery at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

Because the queen bee’s chemical attracter draws swarms of bees, he said, “you could use it to catch swarms for honey production. . . . If we can use this material to attract worker honey bees to crops, then we really have something.”

Writing in Nature magazine, Slessor said the five chemicals were found in the queen bee’s jawbone gland. “Other people have picked out one or two chemicals over the past 25 years, but none of them did what they were expected to do. Only all five get the court or retinue to perform.”

It is not known what amount of the royal bee’s perfume is needed to harness her workers but it appears to be powerful at short range--about one-half inch, Slessor said. The workers surround the queen, licking her and brushing their antennae against her.

He said the queen’s chemical secretion keeps the workers in control and stabilizes the hive community. The queen bee exudes varying amounts of her secretion at different times of the year. The belief is that in the spring, when the colony is very active, the queen is probably producing more.