Chased by bee
Mary370
Limerick, Ireland Posts: 2,003
Is it possible to be chased by a bee, I swear I was just chased from my garden by one. I was out deadheading the cornflowers, and noticed several different species of bees, I never knew they like corn flowers, anyway, I seem to have annoyed one of the bees by being there, it was way too close for comfort to my head, even when I was a few metres away from the cornflowers, it was still buzzing around my head. Am I being silly or did the bee deliberately direct me away from the flowers?
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no, it didn't, it's just a bee. It just feels like that when one is checking you out.
Don't take any notice, you won't be stung if you leave it alone.
Wearing bright colours? Like Nut says probably checking you out. They are pretty much harmless creatures unless sat on.
That's happened to me a lot especially if l am wearing bright coloured clothing.l just stand still (and apologise to the bee,honestly
).Eventually they loose interest and buzz off (sorry 
).
A bee will only sting as a last resort .
Could it have been staking its territory? We've been enjoying watching a bee doing just that round a patch of cat mint recently - at first I thought it was just really picky in choosing which flower to land on, but every day for a couple of weeks it would fly in circles round and round the plant, and when it spotted another bee on the plant, it would attack it. Cue a few bee tussles mid-air (all of which were harmless, thankfully), and then back on patrol. It definitely looked like it was pretty miffed by us being close by - darted round us a few times - but each time realised we were a bit big to challenge.
I think - possibly - it was a male hairy footed flower bee, but could be wrong. Anyway, cat mint has now gone way past its best, and was covered in aphids (damn those ants farming them), so I've cut it right back. Not sure what the poor bee must have thought when its territory disappeared!
Bit of a tangent, sorry, but could your bee have been doing something similar?
Anna33.......... you evicted a poor bee!
AnniD........I couldn't stand still, I moved away because I hate when they get too close, but it kept followng me, I retired into the house and closed the door behind me, just in case
I know they don't sting but I find it unnerving to be too close to them, or them to me, I much prefer watching from a few feet away.
I know Mary, it can get disconcerting when they take a liking to you !
I can report that they do follow you and do sting - under certain circumstances.
My neighbour has hives and he was splitting one hive into two and it made them cranky. I was weeding and one was buzzing round my face and, without thinking, I flipped my ponytail and it seemed to annoy it and it started repeatedly coming in closer. I walked off towards the house and it followed me and stung my on the cheek.
I've also had one sting me on back of the neck when I felt something tickling me and put my hand up to see if my hair had come down. This one was crabby as we'd had a sunny day in Feb, it ventured out and couldn't find any food. A single bee sting doesn't seem to hurt as much as a wasp sting.
He said my vanilla scented shower gel was attracting them. His bees are small and very dark (almost look like house flies) and I suspect they are a little more aggressive than bumble bees. But I get honey as compensation
Other than those two occasions - I normally also just stand still and they lose interest.
Honey bees also vary in temperament like all animals, some hives are much more docile than others. The more 'aggressive' colonies are handled by seasoned experts.
Last edited: 09 July 2017 20:55:59
Agree. I think I was just unlucky....twice!. But it has only been twice in about 7 years and his hives have about 40,000 bees each. Always amazing to see them when they swarm and it's usually in my garden. I know they are supposed to be less likely to sting when swarming but it's a really scary sound and I don't take any chances and head inside.
Last edited: 10 July 2017 11:24:19