Glossary
An overview of the pheromone communication system that coordinates honey bee colony behavior. Bees use at least 15 different identified pheromones to regulate nearly every aspect of colony life including queen recognition, defense, foraging recruitment, comb construction, and reproductive decisions.
The queen pheromone (Queen Mandibular Pheromone, QMP) is a complex blend of five primary compounds that the queen produces from mandibular glands and distributes through contact with attending worker bees. QMP suppresses worker ovary development, prevents queen cell construction, attracts workers for court behavior, and stimulates foraging activity.
When QMP levels decline (aging queen, large colony where pheromone cannot spread to all bees, or queen loss), workers sense the deficiency and initiate queen replacement: building queen cells, allowing worker ovary development, and shifting from maintenance behavior to reproductive behavior.
Alarm pheromone (isopentyl acetate): released from the sting shaft during stinging. Smells like bananas to humans. Recruits other bees to the sting site and elevates colony defensiveness. This is why a single sting can trigger multiple stings. Nasonov pheromone: a homing signal released by workers at the hive entrance or swarm gathering site. The lemony scent (geraniol and nerolic acid) guides disoriented bees home.
Brood pheromone: produced by developing larvae, signals the colony about the quantity and age of brood present. High brood pheromone levels stimulate pollen foraging (larvae need protein), suppress worker reproduction, and influence the ratio of nurse bees to foragers in the colony's division of labor.
Some, yes. Alarm pheromone (isopentyl acetate) smells like bananas. Nasonov pheromone smells lemony. Queen pheromone has a subtle musky scent detectable at close range. These human-perceptible scents are useful clues during hive management.
Each sting releases alarm pheromone from the sting shaft. This chemical signal marks the target and recruits other bees to sting the same location. This is also why beekeepers immediately smoke a sting site, to mask the alarm pheromone before it recruits additional defenders.
She does not directly control individual bees. Rather, the presence and concentration of QMP creates a chemical environment that influences the physiological development and behavioral tendencies of all workers. When QMP is strong, workers behave cooperatively. When it weakens, they begin reproductive behaviors. It is chemical governance rather than command.
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