Lemongrass oil can help attract honey bee scouts to a bait hive, but it is not magic and it is not identical to honey bee Nasonov pheromone. The best results come from combining a suitable nest cavity with a light scent cue rather than soaking a poor box in essential oil. Our companion guide on using lemongrass as bee bait covers the broader practical approach.
TL;DR: Lemongrass oil contains volatile compounds that overlap with components of honey bee Nasonov pheromone, which helps explain why beekeepers use it in swarm traps. Use it sparingly. A good bait hive still needs the right cavity size, entrance, position and timing. I also use fresh lemongrass mixed with beeswax and propolis as a bait-box coating, and I have had excellent results with it.
If you are learning swarm behaviour and bait-hive basics, the Beginner Beekeeping guide provides useful background.
What Is Lemongrass?
Lemongrass usually refers to aromatic grasses in the genus Cymbopogon. Their essential oils contain volatile compounds that give the plant its strong lemon scent.
This is a picture of a very sad lemongrass clump growing in my garden. It got slightly frosted in winter but will recover with some help. I keep this plant for culinary purposes, making gin, and for my method of catching bees.
Why Lemongrass Smells So Strong
Plants produce a huge variety of volatile compounds, many of which belong to the terpene and terpenoid families. These chemicals contribute to the smells that humans, bees and many other animals detect.
Think of walking through a pine forest and smelling resinous pine compounds, peeling an orange and releasing limonene-rich oils, or grinding fresh pepper and releasing a completely different aromatic mix. Our memories are full of smells because volatile chemicals are excellent signals.
Lemongrass essential oil varies with plant material, location and processing, but citral is usually a dominant feature. Citral is a mixture of the isomers geranial and neral. Lemongrass oil may also contain compounds such as myrcene, geraniol and geranyl acetate.
Honey Bees Communicate With Smell
Honey bees do far more than dance. Chemical communication is fundamental to colony life, from queen signals and brood odours to alarm pheromone and orientation cues.
If you have been stung by a honey bee and noticed a banana-like smell, that is associated with alarm pheromone. At another end of the behavioural spectrum is the Nasonov gland, which workers expose while fanning to release an orientation pheromone.
What Is Nasonov Pheromone?
Nasonov pheromone is a multi-component blend. Classic chemical work identified components including citral isomers, geraniol, nerol, nerolic acid, geranic acid and farnesol. Experiments have shown that the blend is attractive to honey bees, and research on reproductive swarms found substantially more swarms choosing artificial nest cavities baited with Nasonov pheromone than unbaited cavities.
The important word is blend. Honey bee communication does not depend on one molecule floating around by itself. The relative mixture matters.
Why Lemongrass Oil Can Work as a Swarm Attractant
Lemongrass oil overlaps chemically with parts of the Nasonov signal. Citral-related compounds and geraniol are obvious examples. That gives us a plausible biological reason why a lightly scented cavity can attract the attention of scout bees.
But I think it is optimistic to say the bees smell lemongrass and simply read it as one of their own pheromones. That would be a bit like saying love is good and therefore evil, which contains nearly the same letters, means the same thing. The ingredients and the ratios matter.
Nevertheless, lemongrass oil clearly gives scout bees something interesting to investigate, and that is often enough to make it useful in a bait hive.
The Bait Hive Matters More Than the Smell Alone
A lure cannot turn a poor cavity into an excellent nest site. Research on Apis mellifera swarms shows that scouts evaluate the physical quality of a cavity and recruit other scouts to better options. For the box itself, see how to make a honey bee trap.
Experimental work has repeatedly found strong preference for cavities around 30–40 litres, with relatively small entrances and protected elevated positions often performing well. Natural colonies use a much wider range, so this is a design target rather than a rigid law. Our guide to whether bees will move into an empty hive explains how those preferences play out in practice.
For more on the overall setup, see how to lure bees into a hive.
How to Use Lemongrass Oil in a Bait Box
If you use essential oil, use it lightly. You are trying to make the cavity noticeable to a scout bee, not fumigate it.
I do not regard a fixed number of drops as a universal rule because essential oils vary in concentration, boxes differ in volume and ventilation, and warm weather changes evaporation dramatically. Start with a small amount near the inside entrance or on a slow-release material and let the scent disperse through the box.
Do not continually add more simply because you cannot smell it strongly from a distance. Honey bees can detect volatile chemicals at concentrations very different from what we notice.
My Fresh-Lemongrass Bait Paint
For my trap boxes I have used a method that works very well for me. I take a few sprigs of lemongrass from my clump and run them through a blender. If you do not have a blender, chop them finely.
I then melt beeswax gently in a double boiler and add a little propolis if I have some available. Once the wax is melted, I mix in the chopped lemongrass plant material.
Use Indirect Heat for Beeswax
Beeswax should be melted with controlled indirect heat rather than directly over a flame. A double boiler is useful because the water bath limits the temperature around the wax vessel and reduces the chance of local overheating.
Do not leave melting wax unattended. Beeswax is combustible and molten wax can cause serious burns.
Apply Only a Few Dabs
Once the mixture has cooled enough to handle safely but remains workable, I put a few small dabs inside the bait box near the entrance and on the landing area.
I once had a swarm move into one of these baited boxes while I was still attaching it to a Eucalyptus tree. Most bizarre. I have also spoken to high-volume swarm catchers who use similar scented bait-box systems very successfully.
That does not mean every baited box catches a swarm. The local swarm population, competition from natural cavities, weather, timing and the quality of the box all matter.
Can You Use Commercial Swarm Lures Instead?
Yes. Commercial lures commonly use synthetic pheromone components or proprietary blends. They offer a more controlled formulation and release rate than home-made plant material.
Lemongrass oil is attractive because it is cheap, accessible and easy to use. Commercial lures may be more consistent. Neither option compensates for a poor nest cavity.
When to Put Bait Hives Out
Set bait boxes out before your local swarm period so scouts have time to discover them. In temperate regions this is often centred on spring and early summer, but swarm timing varies with climate, forage, colony strength and honey bee population. If you are unsure about timing, see when bees swarm for useful seasonal and behavioural context.
In warmer climates or with some African-derived populations, swarming can occur across a much broader part of the year. Use local colony behaviour rather than a northern-hemisphere calendar.
How Often Should the Lure Be Refreshed?
Volatile oils evaporate. Heat, sunlight, airflow, rain exposure and the lure formulation all affect how long the scent persists.
Refresh a lure when it has largely faded rather than constantly topping it up. More scent is not automatically better. Laboratory work with Nasonov-related terpenoids shows that these compounds can alter honey bee behaviour in different ways depending on context and concentration.
The Bottom Line
Lemongrass oil is useful because it gives a bait hive an odour that honey bee scouts are likely to investigate. Its chemistry overlaps with parts of Nasonov pheromone, but it is not a perfect copy of the bees’ communication signal.
Use a small amount, put it in a genuinely attractive cavity, and let the scouts make the decision. The box is the house; the lure is merely the sign outside.
If you are planting more forage around your apiary as well, see the best plants for honey production.
Lemongrass Oil for Honey Bees FAQs
Does lemongrass oil attract honey bee swarms?
It can help make a bait hive more attractive to scout bees. Lemongrass oil contains volatile compounds that overlap with components of honey bee Nasonov pheromone, but it does not reproduce the complete pheromone blend and it cannot guarantee that a swarm will choose the box.
How much lemongrass oil should I use in a bait hive?
Use it sparingly. A small scent source is normally enough to make the cavity noticeable; saturating a bait hive with essential oil is unnecessary and may make the odour unnaturally strong. There is no single universal drop count that is optimal for every box, climate and product.
Is lemongrass oil the same as Nasonov pheromone?
No. Nasonov pheromone is a specific multi-component blend produced by worker honey bees. Lemongrass oil shares some related compounds, especially citral-related components and geraniol, but its composition and ratios are different.
What makes a good swarm trap besides the lure?
The cavity itself matters greatly. Research on Apis mellifera shows strong preferences for suitable enclosed cavities, with roughly 30–40 litres often performing well, together with a small defensible entrance and an elevated, dry position.
Can I use fresh lemongrass instead of essential oil?
Yes, as an experimental bait. Garth has had good results using chopped or blended lemongrass mixed into beeswax and propolis and dabbed inside bait boxes. That is first-hand beekeeping experience rather than a standardised scientific lure formulation.
Can too much lemongrass oil repel bees?
Very strong concentrations can alter honey bee behaviour, and concentrated terpenoids are not automatically attractive simply because related compounds occur in bee pheromones. For bait hives, more is not necessarily better.
When should I put out a bait hive?
Put bait hives out before and during the local swarm season so scout bees can discover them before colonies issue swarms. Timing varies with climate, forage and local honey bee biology rather than following the same calendar everywhere.
How often should I refresh lemongrass oil in a swarm trap?
Refresh only when the scent has largely faded rather than continually adding more. Heat, airflow, rain exposure and the formulation all affect how quickly volatile compounds dissipate.
Dr Garth A. Cambray is a beekeeper, biotechnologist and researcher with nearly three decades of practical beekeeping experience. He holds a PhD in Biotechnology from Rhodes University and has worked extensively in honey production, fermentation biotechnology and value-added bee products. View Dr. Garth Cambray’s credentials, research and experience.
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