• Question: Why can't bees just look at a plant to know which plant it is

    Asked by anon-217982 to Matthew (known as Kaan by on 10 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Matthew Alkan

      Matthew Alkan answered on 10 Jun 2019:

      That is a great question!

      I am not a entomologist (Bee and insect person) but i can tell you what i know from talking to people.

      Bee’s have a good eye sight and they do exactly that and they use their eyes to find plants. However when you are very tiny like a bee its very hard to find your plant until you are very close (Maybe 10-15cm?) So the way they get around this is they use the plants smell which they can smell from nearly a mile away!

      What i think is the coolest thing is they use electric fields when they are really close to th eplant (1-3cm ish) to be able to align with the plant and find the nectar.

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