@!#$%* sweat bees!

[Faithfree]

In a few days I return to fieldwork in the tropical north – Perth's cold damp winter weather a distant memory. Back to warm humid conditions, and the joys of sweat bees. Sweat bees look like little flies, but they are true bees, albeit without stings. They make hives in trees and produce nice honey. The lack of stings is a good thing, but what they lack in stinging ability is made up in annoyance potential. They are attracted to sweat on the skin, and unlike flies, no amount of shooing will distract them from the important business of gathering moisture. They tend to only be active in the hotter part of the day, and are usually present only in relatively low numbers unless you happen to be working within a hundred metres or so of a hive, when they can descend in their hundreds. Because they don’t fly off when shooed they can be easily swatted, after which the dead bodies can be scraped off the skin, but this turns out to be counter productive. The squashed bees emit an odour which seems to attract even more bees leading to an explosion of bee numbers descending on the hapless swatter. They seen to ignore, or perhaps even be attracted by most insect repellents, being dissuaded by only the heaviest duty repellents that probably cause cancer on sight. I have long ago accepted that if you can’t beat them, learn to ignore them. They’re actually much much nicer than the ticks.

It's actually difficult taking a photo of yourself with one hand.

[mistermack]

Bloody hell, it's lucky they don't sting.
What about carrying a damp cloth to distract them, or do they ignore other moisture?
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[Faithfree]

Bloody hell, it's lucky they don't sting.
What about carrying a damp cloth to distract them, or do they ignore other moisture?

Seems as if they prefer sweat to other forms of moisture, but it's also clear that they like some people more than others, and it's not just how much that person is sweating. If you have a person that's a natural sweat bee magnet in your group, and it's not you, that's a good thing. If you're by yourself the bees have no choice.

[mistermack]

In Canada they have blackfly, but they really bite as well. You have to carry a small branch with leaves, and keep swishing it.
In Scotland and Ireland they have midges, that don't have a painful bite, but they can drive people mad. Literally. There are so many of them, they look like a cloud around you.
I wouldn't fancy those bees though.
.

[FBM]

Jeebus. We've got them around here, but I've only attracted at worst 3 at a time.