.....Any idea where I might buy lemongrass oil, here in Ontario Canada? (Peterborough to Belleville)
Any kind of health food store should have it.
If on-line works for you try these people. High quality & Organic. The Wife makes soap and has been getting her oils from them for fifteen years now. I use their stuff for my bees too.
Mountain Rose (http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/)
EBAY.
Make sure what you get is pure lemon grass oil and not some imitation.
There is a page on my website on baithives with an actual picture of it. Dave's Bees - Bait hives (http://www.davesbees.com/Baithives.html)
https://www.lorannoils.com/p-8967-lemongrass-pure-essential-oil.aspx (https://www.lorannoils.com/p-8967-lemongrass-pure-essential-oil.aspx)
This is a great Canadian source. Good prices and excellent quality - I'm too new to post URL but company is called New Directions Aromatics, out of Ontario.
....buzzy
Checked out the site you rec. on lemon grass oil, both the plain and the organic oil they sell say they are used as an insect repellant, is this the oil reccommended for bee's???
hiramabuf!!!
Some of the Non Chem/organic bug repellant out there is lemongrass oil. Figure that one out. I know of Burt's Bees Farmer's Friend Lemongrass Insect Lotion. I can't remember the other one that I have seen. (It is at Walmart in the camping section right now). Deep Woods maybe. But they sell because they do not use Deet.
Bees have a gland on the tips of their butts called the Nasanov gland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasonov). You can see them on the landing boards, or around the entrances with their butts in the air and wings fanning. What they're doing is scenting the air to tell the other hive members the location of the entrance.
Lemon Grass (Cymbopgon Citratus) Oil mimics Nasanov pheromone. It's pretty potent and a drop or two will bring them in to check out whatever it's on. I had a swarm trap out within spitting distance of two of my colonies and they seemed to camp out in it, coming and going without actually doing anything inside. Fooled me into thinking I had caught a swarm several times before I took it down in frustration.