Are these bees or wasps? The only reason bees would follow you around is if you looked and smelled like a flower so any kind of scent, perfume and soaps, should not be used or applied before going out to work in the garden.
The Yellow Jackets, a wasp that many people mistake for a bee, is an aggressive, albeit beneficial, insect that can be a real pest because if they feel the least bit threatened they could attack.

Thank you very much

I saw bumble bees, yellow jackets, and other thinner wasps in the garden. Usually, the ones that follow me are bumble bees. I just don't understand why they follow me, because I never wear perfume, take shower, or put anything on me. That's why I use herbal insect repellent which contain oils of citronella, mint, and etc..... Still, they follow me when I use the essential oil... Very strange!!!!!

Bumblebees never bother me, they spend all their time on the flowers including the mint.

So maybe the herbal insect repellant is useful to repel mosquitos but attracts bees???

I had that same problem - even had one chase me thru a large store one time!

Now I use a piece of eucalyptus branch that I just stick in my hair or behind my ear. Works wonders. I buy a bunch from the store and stick them in a vase until I want one to use.

Hope this helps.

thank you all. I will try eucalyptus..

I had bumble bees at the beginning of the summer following me. Actually, they are very nosey. One was following me and I threw a stick in the opposite direction and it chased the stick and then came flying back to me. It was rather funny and cute.

hey when i was on my bike a a bumble bee was following me for some reson and i tried to get away but it followed me until i reached my house. why was it followed me .i don't were perfume and i didnt take a shower that day. also o what bee was it. it was black and bigger than a regular bee

I was putting down a mixture of fish emulsion, seaweed and other nasty smelling but beneficial stuff in my veggie garden today and I was almost finished when suddenly a big, black buzzing thing dive bombed me. Scared me to death! I recently had knee surgery for a torn meniscus and couldn't run very fast but I took off anyway. This thing followed me forever! I would look back and there it was. I kept screaming for my husband but he was weedeating with earprotectors on so couldn't hear me. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Now I'm afraid to go back to the garden. Do you think the concoction I was putting down got the bee riled up? I'm going to defintely get some eucalyptus and put it in my hat.

I found this thread after a little wonky incident with a bumble bee tonight. (I'm pretty sure it was a bumble bee, it was rather chunky and black.)

I was out on my usual walk, when a bumble bee curiously circled around me. Normally, I get a slight bit edgy (with bees in general), but I try to just let the curiosity run it's course and keep on walking. In times passed, the bee will usually wander off somewhere.

Well not tonight. The bee circled, circled and circled again. Out of reflex, I got a little jumpy and waved my arms at it to deter it. Well, I think that probably wasn't smart (after more reading online), and the bee just kept on circling, faster.

So then I bolted into a run and could here the darned thing behind me, and it just wouldn't go away! I was feeling embarrassed, running past the neighbors house at full speed in my skirt while this bee was STILL right behind me. It managed to circle a couple more times while I was at my full run. I pulled the hood of my thin 'hoodie' over my hair and kept running.

Fortunately the house wasn't too far, and I could STILL hear that thing behind me all the way until probably 10 feet before the door. I didn't stop to check, I just whipped that door open and threw myself inside and slammed it shut.

I was gasping for air and looking out the window of the door and there was no bee.

I'm not exactly sure what happened. Do you think the bee would have stung me if I hadn't kept running?

What should I do next time? I plan on walking as usual tomorrow.

Are you vegetarian or vegan?

back in the day.. hairspray was a magnet ...

my theory is.. scent ...

the worse is women who put on perfume... and come visit the garden.. what do they expect.. they smell like flowers... crikey ..

its either your shampoo.. conditioner.. deodorant ... laundry detergent or softener sheets ....

i highly doubt its personal ....

ken

I can't say I've ever had a Bumble Bee follow me, in 30+ years in the garden. I just love bumble bees, cute, fuzzy and always docile in my experience. So I have no idea why they were a problem for some people.

I can say that I usually have a fair amount of confidence around bees and will sometimes even deadhead when there are a lot of bees in the bed among the flowers I'm deadheading. I have to purposely focus my attention on them, because I'm tuning them out most of the time I guess.

Yellow jackets and wasps on the other hand, I find very aggressive at times. I actively try to avoid them if there is more than just a stray one here and there. I'm careful about watering around them, because I read somewhere that they are sensitive to sounds and vibrations, like from a lawn mower, etc. This fall there have been more than usual yellow jackets. When I have filled up the watering can, all of a sudden, I've seen a few buzz over to the can. And I was mixing fish emulsion and watering a few plants with it and they were very interested in flying around the area I just poured the fertilizer. I thought that was odd. I know that they are very attracted to sugar but I didn't think there was sugar in Fish Emulsion. Maybe there is?

Anyway, if a yellow jacket flies close to me intentionally, I usually can't help but react. I will turn in a circle, like a slow pivot, so the back of my head is facing them, rather than my face, because that makes me less nervous. Then I slowly walk in the opposite direction without lifting my arms or making any sudden noises or movement. I won't even turn my head to look back to see where they are. I understand that flailing your arms is the worst thing to do, or swatting at them. Running can actually get them chasing you. If there is a swarm of them after you though, I don't know how you could NOT run!

The thing I worry about though is running into a ground nest of bees. My brother had that happen when he was mowing the lawn when we were kids and it wasn't pretty. This year I've been thinking more about that, because I have seen more yellow jackets this year and just this week, I've seen them flying close to the ground and along some of my rock edges and I wonder if they are looking for a place to build a nest. So I'm trying to remember when I go out to be on the lookout for that.

prariemoon, yellowjackets: they aren't nest building this time of year. Queens will look for a place to overwinter alone, then she will chose a site for a nest next Spring. The males and workers leave, mate, die, and the nests aren't reused from year to year.

They are interested in protein as well as sugar, feeding on foods rich in sugars and carbohydrates like nectar and fruit. Also foods high in protein, insects, fish, meat and can be more aggressive when food supplies begin to get more scarce with declining weather, that's the interest in your 'fragrant' fish emulsion.

Morz8, that is great to know! Thanks. So I don't have to worry about finding any nests until next spring. And now I know why they found my fish emulsion interesting. Well, I found it interesting enough to do a search about yellow jackets because I really don't know anything about them. Looks like I have lots of potential places for them to build a nest, so now I will be better prepared to be on the look out. I just saw that they build their nests from wood fiber that they chew into a pulp. Aha! That is why I saw them all over my wooden raised vegetable beds last spring!

I also see on the Gardener's Supply website, that they recommend that if you are stung by a yellow jacket, you should run as fast as you can and get away from them, because they mark you with a scent that will work as a target for other yellow jackets.

This has been interesting. I'm going to have to pay more attention next year, to which bees and wasps are visiting my garden and if there are any nests around somewhere.

Bees follow me when I wear a floral patterned shirt or the color yellow. I also have a floral sunhat which I no longer can wear.

Paper wasps and yellowjackets can be a frustration to the Butterfly Gardener as well, taking caterpillars and pupae back to feed their larvae. They also eat lots of pests as well. They, as well as honeybees and Bumblebees will sting if their nest is threatened or approached.
Most bees and wasps, however, esp the solitary ones, do not sting or defend their nests.
Some wasps, such as the Digger Wasps or Katydid Killers (Sphex), look fierce with their size, but are really passive and are only interested in nectar and katydids to feed their young.
Many other wasps destroy spiders, caterpillars and beetle grubs by parasitizing their hosts (think Ripley in Aliens), thereby making them valuable allies in the garden.
All solitary bees are essentially pollinators and do not become aggressive.

I can't help but wonder why wasps keep trying to make a nest in the canopy over our front door, if they don't want anyone approaching their nests. There's traffic there all the time and we end up having to knock them down when the nests are pretty small.

That's the trouble c Paper Wasps; they are unafraid of people and traffic. Canopies are perfect nesting sites; they provide shelter from the weather and have easy access to the great outdoors.
Your approach is correct, policing the area periodically and hosing off small nests before they become big ones. Sooner or later, they'll move on to a more favorable location, hopefully out of the way of people and pets.

Yes, they always move on but start over again the next spring. :-)

A few years ago, I was sitting outside on a nice afternoon reading a book. A paper wasp landed on the book, recognized it as a building source and began working the edge of the pages while I held the book in my hands. It made funny little sounds as it worked. Every few seconds it flew off to whereever it's nest was and returned a couple of minutes later to gather more construction material.

That was one well-read wasp!

no.. thats one reader with gut of steel .. lol ...

i might allow it once .... but i dont know if i could sit there while it repeatedly did such.. without wetting myself.. lol

ken

Lol, Ken. Wasps and hornets make me nervous, but this insect was so clearly not interested in me....and so clever at its job that I forgot to be scared. I learned the same thing with bees many years ago. I'll nudge bees away from flowers that I'm picking. I pretty much lost my fear of insects ages ago.

Now, Yellow Jackets are something else, lol.

I was 180 ft in the air on a cell phone tower. It was a calm cloudy day. A little bee landed on the tower and kept on buzzing. He just sat the and kinda curled his back and buzzed, continuously, non stop until I would scare him. Then he would fly away all crazy like he was on cocaine. Then he would just come back and buzz while landed being still again. This is something I did not understand...?

Honey bees used to be on the pansies when I watered them in a plant nursery in Pa many years ago. They would just fly straight up a few feet. When I stopped watering they came back down. I've never gotten bit by a bee, wasp or yellow jacket in the 40 years I worked around plants. You just have to be gentle and respect them. Every year I go to pick grapes the wasps are there biting the ripe ones. Talk about scary. I just go easy and pick the grapes. Believe me I flinch and pray alot while picking!

i think.. there is some idea that the high power voltage can affect bees ... or was that birds ...

if you work under the assumption .. that a bee has a job to do .. and understand.. if you let them do it.. they wont bother you ... then 99.9% of the time.. they simply do their biz ...

most problems occur... when a hive is disturbed ... and when that happens. you are IN their business ... and its no wonder.. they react ...

ken

My daughter and I moved into a new place last week. Although pretty, the front yard was overrun with little purple flowers and high grass so I had to mow. There were several bumble bees hovering around and I apologized to them for mowing their flowers. They aren't missing out on flowers as there are tons more in other parts of the property. I'm not normally concerned with them, I've never had one hurt me. Today though one was hovering near the car when we pulled in the driveway. He would sporadically dash elsewhere for a few seconds, but Always, came right back to the car door...just hovering near the window. Basically, my daughter couldn't get out of the car as he seemed to be stalking her, and she was scared. He wouldn't even leave for more than a second when I tried to distract him with a bright yellow cloth. Why was he "stalking her"? lol It literally took ten minutes to get him distracted long enough for her to bolt through the door.

I love bumble bees, they are so huge and cute and clumsy, I kind of wish they would follow me around while I garden! :)

Bc you're sweet :-)

I just read this whole thread and I am in tears with laughter at the two bumble bee stories. The knee surgery girl losing it completely whilst ear protector boy remains oblivious to the pandemonium playing out behind him ( jackieb_comcast_net ) and the woman whose casual walk turned into full blown zombie apocalypse survival instinct sprint ( amyzan ) until she was safely indoors, all flustered while staring out of her window with shotgun-toting paranoia. man, you two gals made my day!!!

that being said it's especially funny because I have seen firsthand a full grown marine run for his very life with a bumble bee on his six like he was the juiciest flower on the planet. he literally did two half mile laps looking over his shoulder every five steps like the devil himself was after him.

so don't fret, ladies. bumble bees scare people and make other people laugh. :)

Came across this by googling " Why bees are attracted to me?" I'm so glad I'm not the only one screaming like a banshee and running around my yard while the neighbors look on and think, "Yep, she's a nut case alright!" Even though I'm plagued with this unfortunate recurrence myself, these stories cracked me up. The post above mine....brilliant sir!!

I'm so glad I'm not the only one screaming like a banshee and running
around my yard while the neighbors look on and think, "Yep, she's a nut
case alright!"

==>>> yeah ... blame it on bees ... lol.. other would just suggest its an exercise regimen ... ken

I love bumble bees and do what I can to attract them to my garden, but they have been flying directly into my face, lately..As I walk through the forest on my land I see the bee doing his thing nearby, and then he will just fly directly into my face, my cheek to be exact, as I walk by. Why does the bee do this? Is it aggression, or bad eyesight?

That is odd. I haven't had that happen to me, but yesterday I was walking to my front door and I just happened to be in the path of a bumble bee, because I was near to my Blue Holly that is covered with bees at the moment and he did touch my arm in passing. Just brushed past me. I thought it was simply an accident and definitely not intentional.

I don't believe bumble bees are aggressive at all. But - perhaps you are walking near it's home and it is protecting it. That's the only thing I can think of. But I'm no expert. I would post a separate thread on the Bee forum and someone who is expert would have a chance to respond.

Bumblebees are very aggressive if you are near the hive. We found two nests in an old chicken coop we remodeled after moving into an old farmhouse in the country. It’s a love/hate relationship since we love them as pollinators.

They will chase you until they can sting you.

I’m less afraid of carpenter bees. The aggressive male is horrifying but won’t / can’t sting you. It is just protective And very intimidating.

bzzzzzzz!!