How intelligent are bees?

Question

I had always thought as a kid bees released something if you pissed them off or killed them to call in more bees to sting you. It seems kind of ridiculous now, but I wanted to make sure.

Answer 1

Bees-I presume you mean honeybees-are not intelligent. They are absolutely programmed by evolution. If an attack pheremone is released they get very angry and immediately search for danger. If you are too close to the hive they will attack and the smell of their poison on you triggers even more pheremones. Honeybees even mark the flowers to indicate to other bees that this is a good source of nectar-they do it - again-with pheremones. When certain flowers are in bloom which are a good source of nectar the bees will concentrate almost exclusively on that particular type of flower. Not because they are intelligent but because over millenia they have been programmed to do just that. If you are ever able to look at the inside of a hive with a bee-keeper you can see this pheremone action actually working. One bee will release an alarm pheremone and on the honeycomb which is crawling with hundreds of bees you can see the signal spread. The next bee will become agitated and start a certain sort of buzzing and vibrating its wings. The bees nearest to it will copy it so that it spreads rather like the "wave effect" at a football match when the whole crowd ripples from one end to the other.

Answer 2

I agree with the attack pheromones. Ants do it, too. But it's not intelligence, it is instinct. Their tiny brains can only tell them to do something, they don't have the ability to reason whether it is the right thing to do or not. There is no consideration of what the outcome may be, only to protect their hive.

Answer 3

Sounds like you're talking about "attack pheromones." These are released by any of the various species of honeybees. What happens is when one honeybee stings you and dies it releases a chemical odor that drives the other workers into a frenzy to attack. They are intelligent enough to wait till you surface for air if you try getting underwater to thwart the attack.