# Non Honeybee Honey
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-honeybee-honey/458007
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 29, 2008, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-honeybee-honey/458007 "2008-07-29T00:21:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@B\_A\_Bay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B_A_Bay)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2008, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-honeybee-honey/458007/1 "2008-07-29T00:21:47Z")
I was reading a wikipedia article on honey and it says
“his article refers exclusively to the honey produced by honey bees (the genus Apis); honey produced by other bees or other insects has very different properties.”
So I guess my question is what “different” properties does it have?
What other animals make honey? I’m assuming other types of social bees make honey. Would it be THAT different from honeybee honey?
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### Author:  [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2008, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-honeybee-honey/458007/2 "2008-07-29T00:48:19Z")
Bumblebees make honey. I tasted some bumblebee honey when I was a child, at my grandfather’s farm. It wasn’t very good. It was runnier and less intensely sweet than honeybee honey.
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2008, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-honeybee-honey/458007/3 "2008-07-29T01:28:51Z")
I asked about the native Australian bees and sugarbag earlier this year. I got a little input from that question, but not a lot. I tried a thread search but all I got was a hang. I suggest you look up sugarbag.
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### Author:  [@Madd\_Maxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madd_Maxx)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2008, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-honeybee-honey/458007/4 "2008-07-29T15:07:13Z")
Well, some of the other bee’s honey can give you a bit of a buzz.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2008, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-honeybee-honey/458007/5 "2008-07-29T15:15:48Z")
I suppose you could argue that honeypot ants make “honey” – it’s in their name, at least. People eat them, but I’ve never heard of “harvesting” their honey. (Probably not economically feasible, is my guess. Honeybees make a _lot_ of honey. I don’t think honeypot ants store anything like that amount.
> **[Honeypot ant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_ant)**
>
> Honeypot ants, also called honey ants, are ants which have specialised workers (repletes, plerergates, or rotunds) that are gorged with food to the point that their abdomens swell enormously. Other ants then extract nourishment from them, through the process of trophallaxis. They function as living larders. Honeypot ants belong to any of several genera, including Myrmecocystus and Camponotus. They were first documented in 1881 by Henry C. McCook, and described further in 1908 by William Many i...
Besides, amorphous “honey” is probably an easier sell – even with being “bee vomit” – than “honey from an ant’s butt”. even though those are gross oversimplifications. Really gross ones.
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### Author:  [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2008, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-honeybee-honey/458007/6 "2008-07-29T15:27:14Z")
[QUOTE=Madd Maxx]
Well, some of the other bee’s honey can give you a bit of a buzz.
[/QUOTE]
No funny bizzzness allowed!
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2008, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-honeybee-honey/458007/7 "2008-07-29T15:45:33Z")
[QUOTE=Madd Maxx]
Well, some of the other bee’s honey can give you a bit of a buzz.
[/QUOTE]
How very drone.
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### Author:  [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2008, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-honeybee-honey/458007/8 "2008-07-29T15:56:06Z")
[QUOTE=KneadToKnow]
How very drone.
[/QUOTE]
There’s no dancing around the idea that you’re Queen of the hive mentality around here.
I guess I’ll just buzz off now.
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2008, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-honeybee-honey/458007/9 "2008-07-29T17:56:07Z")
Earwigs make honey, too.
In fact, when you combine that with bone meal, and some FDA approved food dye, you get those popular “Conversation Hearts” they sell at Valentine’s Day.
Don’t worry, that’s not true. It’s just a joke from _Futurama._
Although I’m unsure if earwig honey would be more or less gross than that “ant butt” honey linked to earlier…I mean, assuming it would be made like regular honey, which is to say vomited out, it seems to reason that’s it’s less gross than having to (theoretically) _squeeze a bunch of ants_ till the honey comes out.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2008, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-honeybee-honey/458007/10 "2008-07-29T18:00:49Z")
> [@](#):
>
> less gross than having to (theoretically) squeeze a bunch of ants till the honey comes out.
You don’t have to squeeze the ants (although, as the articles mention you _can_). Most people apparently just bite 'em.
Maybe they could be marketed under some suggestive name, like “Bite my Ass” or “Sweet Cheeks”.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2008, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-honeybee-honey/458007/11 "2008-07-29T18:02:56Z")
[QUOTE=bouv]
it’s less gross than having to (theoretically) _squeeze a bunch of ants_ till the honey comes out.
[/QUOTE]
In many countries, recipes that call for lemon juice also say one may substitute ant squeezings if one is lacking lemon juice.
It seems formic acid and citric acid are quite similar in flavor. And ants are just chock-full of formic acid. Which explains why _formication_ is the sensation that ants are crawling on one’s body.
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2008, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-honeybee-honey/458007/12 "2008-07-29T22:55:22Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham]
You don’t have to squeeze the ants (although, as the articles mention you _can_). Most people apparently just bite 'em.
Maybe they could be marketed under some suggestive name, like “Bite my Ass” or “Sweet Cheeks”.
[/QUOTE]
Or Bit-O-Honey which tastes like what I’d expect ant squeezings to taste like.
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2008, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-honeybee-honey/458007/13 "2008-07-30T02:28:19Z")
[Here is the thread I asked about sugarbag honey.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=457761)