Aerial attack on my drone

[Snow-man]

Hello Skydeep,
Thanks for your posting. This has happened to me several times now but with different bees.
I have seen at least a dozen postings now of bees attacking drones.
I'm an entomology professor at the University of Arizona here in Tucson.
I study pollination ecology and also native soltiary ground-nesting bees, their nesting and
mating biology. Long story short, three times now in the past several months, I've had my
Mavic2 Pro attacked by male and female bees in the genus Centris (C. pallida and C. caesalpiniea).
Sadly, the Mavic acted like a flying Cuisinart. Many bees chopped to bits.

It could be visual and acoustic due to sound pressure waves they might be detecting. I lost my
Mavic last month due to a signal disconnect in some treacherous badlands. Did not retrieve it.
I have recordings of the bee wingbeat frequency (166Hz) and the Mavic sound which as you
might imagine is not as clean with lots of white noise and higher level harmonics. Next year I
plan to do some careful tests to see if the bees are atrracted visually or acoustically. If you
look at the bee literature, bees have been thought to be deaf to airborne sounds except at
very close range (I'm talking a few centimeters not many meters from a drone AC).

Your situation: Likely that you were flying in/near a DCA. That is a Drone Congregation Area.
Honey bee males (drones) fly to specific geographic sites and rapidly fly about 30 to 100 ft.
high in circular patterns. Whenever they spot a small dark spot (thinking it is a virgin queen)
they pursue it and mate if they can. The drone honey bees have upward looking holoptic
compound eyes. That way they can see a honey bee queen flying above them and chase her.

Best,
Steve

Wow! Highly interesting. Thanks for the scientific lesson. So, Professor, instead of chopping them all to bits and pieces, what would be the best approach for a pilot in the same situation to help prevent an already in bad shape species to become instinct faster by unaware and un-entomologist Junior drone pilot like me?

 

[Snow-man]

And here is Mini after that flight

View attachment 105543View attachment 105544

Beurk, no respect for such an Expensive and Technologically Advanced piece of hardware. Ok then, one proven thing to remove this gunk, and it’s no joke, promised, try Pledge for wood furnitures. It,s inexpensive, It’s oil based and Won’t damage the plastic like alcool, it will blow away all residu left of all exploded innocents victims of your bees massacre. It will also leave a good smelly protective oily film that will prevent other kamikase bee’s goo and organs to stick to your marvelous machine. (I use this trick to clean my motorcycle windshield after each ride). Oh, please, dont spray directly on the drone, spray on a Scott Towell instead and polish the mess left by your weapon of mass destruction.

 

[Snow-man]

And for a swarm of wasps? Can we help them become little birds mash wasp puree?

 

[Buzzman]

Honey bee swarms are gentle, even Arizona Africanized honey bees. They are too full of
honey for the move to their new home. Really, they don't sting when swarming. People just
get freaked out by the spectacle. Standing among 10,000 swirling bees.

The male bees (drones) are in DCA's and you can't see them from the ground, too diffuse.
Philius Fogg- I hear you. It make me sad to the see the bug splats on my windshield.
Not a nuisance, wasted lives.
The little things that run the world. Insects.

 

[Motorcycle Rider]

Beurk, no respect for such an Expensive and Technologically Advanced piece of hardware. Ok then, one proven thing to remove this gunk, and it’s no joke, promised, try Pledge for wood furnitures. It,s inexpensive, It’s oil based and Won’t damage the plastic like alcool, it will blow away all residu left of all exploded innocents victims of your bees massacre. It will also leave a good smelly protective oily film that will prevent other kamikase bee’s goo and organs to stick to your marvelous machine. (I use this trick to clean my motorcycle windshield after each ride). Oh, please, dont spray directly on the drone, spray on a Scott Towell instead and polish the mess left by your weapon of mass destruction.

I use Pledge on the helicopter windows regularly. The water in a rain storm just rolls off to.
Do the entire fuselage in winter to reduce ice buildup.

 

[Starz]

Possibly a gender change operation on my m2p will keep these drones away. The audible attraction idea is plausible, but this mating attraction isn’t working for me. I’ll watch for the results of the future studies.

 

[BushWacker]

I think it's the sound that attracts them because drones sound so much like bee's swarming. The must think it's a swarm trying to attack them and the launch a counter attack.

 

[Dingo]

happens to me quite alot

 

[Angus Kirkman]

Hi I had similar experience 2 days ago, was in a hover over a forested area looking for a small dam, was pretty high up when the bees came, fortunately not a lot but enough to make me back off from the area. To the best of my knowledge there is no hive in that area of my property. Will definitely not fly over my bee hive as this seems to cause them distress! My bees definitely do sting, especially when harvesting the honey, I am in South Africa.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

"My bees definitely do sting, especially when harvesting the honey, I am in South Africa."
Would european bees be legal or suitable in South Africa?
When I kept them I have been into a Buckfast hive with only a smoker and no protective gear whatsoever.

 

[2wordverdict]

Yesterday 19 June 2020 I sent my drone up about 120 feet altitude and it was attacked by a swarm of bees following my drone and just constantly attacking its surrounding it orbiting it. It was aat they would attack or follow I don’t know if they were talking or thinking it’s the queen bee but it was surprising to see that they were all around my my drone and it was a far away from any kind of obstacle or anything it was pretty high I sent it up twice for the same thing happened I got a picture of one of the beers that got cut up by one of the propellers

Well, now we know what's causing the world-wide disappearances of our bee populations... MaviCatastrophies!!

 

[CrashnBurn]

A month or so after I got my Mini, I was flying a mountainside and it got attacked by a swarm of bees, or I just flew into them...lol

 

[Chiuki]

That's crazy! and it happened to me last week at 120m also. The bee swarm followed the M2P all the way to the ground. (made a mess also)

New attack this week was a swarm of 20 swallows, followed by 2 large seagulls that repeatedly attacked the drone even after I grounded it. (no damage)

 

[kamidoko1974]

Yesterday 19 June 2020 I sent my drone up about 120 feet altitude and it was attacked by a swarm of bees following my drone and just constantly attacking its surrounding it orbiting it. It was aat they would attack or follow I don’t know if they were talking or thinking it’s the queen bee but it was surprising to see that they were all around my my drone and it was a far away from any kind of obstacle or anything it was pretty high I sent it up twice for the same thing happened I got a picture of one of the beers that got cut up by one of the propellers

It happened the same to me. They were wasps. I also made the mistake to try to go down instead to try to run away. They were so many under the sensors that my MM thought to be near the ground and started landing procedure. I was lucky I had the possibility to recover it...

 

[Buzzman]

Yesterday 19 June 2020 I sent my drone up about 120 feet altitude and it was attacked by a swarm of bees following my drone and just constantly attacking its surrounding it orbiting it. It was aat they would attack or follow I don’t know if they were talking or thinking it’s the queen bee but it was surprising to see that they were all around my my drone and it was a far away from any kind of obstacle or anything it was pretty high I sent it up twice for the same thing happened I got a picture of one of the beers that got cut up by one of the propellers

Hi,
Follow this thread. Honey bee swarms are the way honey bee colonies reproduce. The old queen flies off with about 1/2 of her daughters to a new cavity in which to build combs and raise brood. While swarming, although scary to a human observer, the bees (even Africanized honey bees in SE Arizona where I live) are gentle. They do not attack people. Physically, they
can't sting because they are so laden with honey in their honey stomach.

What people have been noticing is that drone honey bees (the males) have chased
drones in DCA's (drone congregation areas high above the ground) where they mate with virgin queens, attracted by their sex pheromone, 9-0-2 acid. The drones are attracted by the sight of the drone and likely the air pressure waves from the props. And, unfortunately many drones get sliced up by the spinning props.
Hope this helps!

Best,
Steve

 

[Dale D]

So drones are attracted to drones, so to speak.

Maybe we could produce some baby drones and sell them-

 

[Jaysjob]

Yesterday 19 June 2020 I sent my drone up about 120 feet altitude and it was attacked by a swarm of bees following my drone and just constantly attacking its surrounding it orbiting it. It was aat they would attack or follow I don’t know if they were talking or thinking it’s the queen bee but it was surprising to see that they were all around my my drone and it was a far away from any kind of obstacle or anything it was pretty high I sent it up twice for the same thing happened I got a picture of one of the beers that got cut up by one of the propellers

Yep. I had the same thing once flying in an open soccer field. The carnage of bee bodies was awful! To me from a distance it looked like those little gnats that get around in the summer. But as I brought my MP down it became clearer and clearer what had happened. I felt bad because I had no control of it happening and bees are an integral part of nature at large but I stopped flying there for awhile just because of the incident. Try not flying that area for a bit and hopefully that will prevent it happening again. ? ?

 

[obruch]

Hello Skydeep,
Thanks for your posting. This has happened to me several times now but with different bees.
I have seen at least a dozen postings now of bees attacking drones.
I'm an entomology professor at the University of Arizona here in Tucson.
I study pollination ecology and also native soltiary ground-nesting bees, their nesting and
mating biology. Long story short, three times now in the past several months, I've had my
Mavic2 Pro attacked by male and female bees in the genus Centris (C. pallida and C. caesalpiniea).
Sadly, the Mavic acted like a flying Cuisinart. Many bees chopped to bits.

It could be visual and acoustic due to sound pressure waves they might be detecting. I lost my
Mavic last month due to a signal disconnect in some treacherous badlands. Did not retrieve it.
I have recordings of the bee wingbeat frequency (166Hz) and the Mavic sound which as you
might imagine is not as clean with lots of white noise and higher level harmonics. Next year I
plan to do some careful tests to see if the bees are atrracted visually or acoustically. If you
look at the bee literature, bees have been thought to be deaf to airborne sounds except at
very close range (I'm talking a few centimeters not many meters from a drone AC).

Your situation: Likely that you were flying in/near a DCA. That is a Drone Congregation Area.
Honey bee males (drones) fly to specific geographic sites and rapidly fly about 30 to 100 ft.
high in circular patterns. Whenever they spot a small dark spot (thinking it is a virgin queen)
they pursue it and mate if they can. The drone honey bees have upward looking holoptic
compound eyes. That way they can see a honey bee queen flying above them and chase her.

Best,
Steve

Thank you for this interesting information. I live in Thailand and fly my MA2 often in the mountains of the North, where I also experienced bee contacts and was wondering why they got attracted to my drone.

 

[Alex 007]

A couple of days ago i had a crow trying to get my drone. After many attempts, it flew away and came back with 3 more and they were all trying to get the drone. It put my skills and my blood pressure to the test till i managed to evade them and land back.

Birds see the drone as a predator and in their world attack is the best form of defense. I have had this happen often in a spot where I fly on the coast with seagulls. I have observed a large bird of prey that is resident in the same area and when it flys around, the gulls behave in exactly the same way.

 

[OneQuickSix]

And here is Mini after that flight

Surprised they didn't pop open the battery compartment ... considering it seems like a small gust of wind might be able to do so. Careful, you might have a couple hiding in there?