Sweat Bees Attracted to Human Tears Due to Salt Content

While most people are familiar with honey bees and their attraction to sweet floral nectars, a group of bees with quite an unusual dietary habit exists. Unlike their counterparts, the so-called 'sweat bees,' scientifically known as Halictidae, exhibit a rather peculiar preference; they like human sweat or tears. This surprising behavior is driven by the bee's need for salt, essential in various physiological processes. Sweat and tears are storehouses of sodium, a mineral often scarce in flower nectar but vital for insect survival. Thus, these bees exploit this unique avenue to meet their dietary needs. Lachlan Chapman first proposed the idea at the Queensland Museum in Australia upon observing their frequent interferences in his field studies. His hypothesis was later confirmed when entomologists Gerald Wilkinson and Sarah D. Kocher found these petite-sized insects feeding on different salty secretions across several locations, from the Americas to Southeast Asia [1]. While this unusual diet may seem alarming due to potential risks involved during interactions between humans and insects (particularly species capable of stinging), it is essential to consider that human-tear drinking often occurs under specific conditions - usually low-salt environments. Furthermore, many species use this strategy as a supplement only when appropriate nectar resources aren't available. Despite its unusualness, this interaction between humans and sweat bees offers an exciting glimpse into nature’s flexibility and interspecies relationships that extend beyond classic predator-prey constructs. References: [1] Gerald S.Wilkinson & Sarah D.kocher 'The Behavior Of Sweat Bees,' Harvard University Press 2019