Green Bees, Spotted in Fall River, Are Attracted to Human Sweat [VIDEO]

As if the Murder Hornet wasn't enough of a discovery for 2020, I stumbled upon a "green bee" in the SouthCoast area that has a thirst for human sweat.

A friend of mine, Jen Cabral, resides in Fall River and is the original source of locating these oddly-colored bees. They resemble a yellow jacket but instead have a green metallic head and a white thorax. It doesn't appear to be a honey bee but was spotted gathering pollen from a flower on its hind legs.

After doing a little research, I had reached out to several local beekeepers about this find, but oddly enough, none of them knew about or had seen this type of bee. I did a little more digging and finally found someone who has yet to come across one, but knew exactly what it was from the video shown above.

They're called "Sweat Bees" (Halictidae, sub-group Agapostemon) and come in a variety of different species and colors.

The bee seen above is classified as a male since it has different striped colors on its thorax (tail), while the females are mostly one solid color or metallic green.

This one, in particular, is common in the north (mostly Canada, but have been known to travel as far south as Argentina) and are most likely around during the warmer weather seasons since the females are attracted to sweat – especially human sweat. The salt from the perspiration is nutrients for them and before you get alarmed, they are a low-risk stinger which basically means, if you leave them alone, they will leave you alone.

If you're looking for a beehive, you won't be able to find it.

These bees nest underground and use a tunnel system, most likely in gardens that are populated with dense and small flowers and sandy soil where sunlight is mostly direct. Chances are if you have any stumps in your garden or old wooden logs, that's where you'll most likely find sweat bees.

Never in a thousand years would I have imagined I'd be nose-diving into researching a subject like bees, but you have to ask yourself this: when's the last time you've seen a green bee, and not just a regular bee, but one that has cravings for human sweat?

I rest my case.