What smells attract bees?

What smells attract bees includes floral, sweet, and fruity scents that signal nectar and pollen sources, as bees have excellent sense of smell and are attracted to flowers and sweet foods. Smells that attract bees most include floral perfumes and scented lotions with flower scents like rose, lavender, and jasmine, which bees mistake for flowers, sweet smells like honey, sugar, ripe fruits like bananas and watermelon, and sugary drinks like soda and juice that are left outdoors, which attract bees foraging for sugars. Bees are also attracted to pheromones from other bees, such as alarm pheromone that smells like bananas and attracts other bees to defend hive, and queen pheromones. They are attracted to smell of beeswax. Bright colors, especially yellow and blue, combined with sweet smells increase attraction. To avoid attracting bees, avoid wearing strong floral perfumes, scented lotions, and bright floral clothing outdoors, keep food and sweet drinks covered, seal trash cans, and clean up spills and overripe fruits. If you want to attract bees to garden for pollination, plant flowers with strong sweet scents like lavender, sunflowers, and herbs like basil and thyme that provide nectar. So bees are attracted to floral, sweet, and fruity smells that signal food sources, and avoiding these scents reduces bee encounters, while using them helps attract bees for pollination.