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Cute bumble bee12/7/2023 Native plants are best because they have coevolved with native bees. Photo by Josh Mayes.Īctive from early spring through late fall, bumble bees need access to a variety of nectar- and pollen-producing flowers as food for the adult bees as well as their larvae. A pollen-dusted bumble bee feeds on coneflower nectar in an Ohio backyard. Here are some of the most important steps you can take: Provide pollen and nectar for food. The good news is that all of us-particularly wildlife gardeners-can help bumble bees in and around our own homes. A new, not-yet-published analysis conducted for IUCN concludes that up to a third of North America’s 49 bumble bee species are declining. Scientists report similar losses across Europe, South America and Asia.īumble bees face many threats, including habitat loss, pesticides, introduced diseases, climate change and competition from honey bees, says Sarina Jepsen, endangered species program director for the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and deputy chair of the IUCN Bumble Bee Specialist Group. The western bumble bee, the yellow banded bumble bee and the Franklin’s bumble bee have all vanished from large portions of their range and the rusty-patched bumble bee was recently listed as officially endangered. Several bumble bee species are rapidly declining and the status of others is unknown. The insects’ size also allows them to generate heat, so bumble bees can fly earlier and later in the day, as well as to cooler, higher altitudes, than can honey bees. That ability, combined with their large size, enables the bees to perform a unique service, “buzz pollination” (vibrating flowers until they release pollen), that helps plants produce more fruit. Bumble bees’ wings beat 130 or more times per second. Managed bumble bee hives have become big business during the past two decades as agricultural demand for bumble bee-pollinated berries, peppers and, especially, hothouse tomatoes has skyrocketed. Graham.īumble bees pollinate plants out in nature, helping to keep our ecosystems healthy, but they are also commercially valuable as pollinators of many crops. Bumble bees are important pollinators of our food plants. Queens overwinter in small holes just beneath or on the ground’s surface, emerging in spring to create new colonies they begin by laying eggs. Except for new queens, which hibernate during winter, bumble bee colonies die in late fall. Usually located underground, particularly in abandoned holes made by rodents, bumble bee hives usually include between 50 and 500 individuals. Like honey bees, bumble bees live socially in hives which provide shelter and a place to raise their young. The bumble bees, 49 species of which are found in the United States, are the exception. The vast majority of our native bees are solitary and don’t form hives or have queens. Bumble bees live in colonies of between 50 and 500 individuals. Unlike most native bees, but like honey bees, bumble bees are social insects that live in colonies. Here are a few more facts you may not have heard about bumble bees: 1. But native bees play critical roles as pollinators as well, and among these indigenous insects, bumble bees are champs. Native to Europe, honey bees were introduced to North America during the 1600s and have been busily pollinating our crops and other plants ever since. If asked to name a key pollinator in the United States, you’re likely to think first of the honey bee.
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