An essential oil component was detected by GC/MS in the floral scent of a plant species that I am studying. I guess that low concentration of this oil will attract honeybees while high concentration will repel them. But how can I test this? I bought the oil from Sigma but it is only slightly soluble in water. Do you think whether it is possible that I add the oil into sugar solution at different concentrations and place them on artificial flowers in our garden? Then I can count the visiting frequency of honeybees to different treatments. I will be very grateful if anyone can give advice about it.
What substance do you detected by GC/MS and what an oil? Bees are very unsensitive against essential oils. For the varoose (an acarian) an oil mixture of 100 g of the product, which contains thymole 76.0 g/ oil of eucalypti 16.4 g/ camphor 3.8 g/ and levomenthole is used. And it is no problem for the bees.
You may wish to check a recent paper by A. Morse and others (L. Shipp and P. Kevan) in which the scent of tomato flowers was found to be repellent. The methods for assessing the pollination/pollinator behaviour are presented in that paper and may give you clues as to how to proceed with your own experiments. Good luck, Peter (Peter G. Kevan)
I am thinking that the essential oil will be detectable by the bees at tiny concentrations, even one part per billion, and so the low solubility should not be a problem. We have used essential oils of things like peppermint, cloves, lemon added to sugar water to attract bees to an experimental apparatus. When we used sugar solution alone, without the scent, we could limit the number of bees that visited the experimental site to only those who had already been there...no new recruits...but you are asking about repelling them with a more concentrated odor of the oil in your study system plant, I think. I have never tried to do that, sorry!
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