[Pollinator] NWF blog: 5 Facts About Bumble Bees-and How To Help Them

[Matthew Shepherd]

A blog by Laura Tangley for NWF.

http://blog.nwf.org/2014/04/5-facts-about-bumble-bees-and-how-to-help-them/


5 Facts About Bumble Bees—and How To Help Themfrom Wildlife
Promise<http://blog.nwf.org>

10 4/26/2014 // By Laura Tangley <http://blog.nwf.org/blog/author/tangley/> //
bumblebees <http://blog.nwf.org/tags/bumblebees/>, Garden for Wildlife
Month<http://blog.nwf.org/tags/garden-for-wildlife-month/>,
Gardening for Wildlife
<http://blog.nwf.org/tags/gardening-for-wildlife/>, National
Wildlife magazine
<http://blog.nwf.org/tags/national-wildlife-magazine/>, Native
Bees <http://blog.nwf.org/tags/native-bees/>

If asked to name a key pollinator in the United States, you’re likely to
think first of the honey bee. 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. But native bees play critical roles as
pollinators<http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Gardening/Archives/2009/The-Buzz-on-Native-Pollinators.aspx>
as
well, and among these indigenous insects, bumble bees are the champs.

Here are a few more facts you may not have heard about bumble bees:
1. Unlike most native bees, but like honey bees, bumble bees are social
insects that live in colonies.

Usually located underground, particularly in abandoned holes made by
rodents, bumble bee nests contain between 50 and 500 individuals.
2. Except for new queens, which hibernate during winter, bumble bee
colonies die in late fall.

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.
3. Bumble bees do not produce honey, but pollination services they provide
are worth more than that product would yield.

Commercially traded bumble bees have become big business during the past
two decades as demand for bumble bee-pollinated berries, peppers and,
especially, hothouse tomatoes has skyrocketed.
4. Bumble bees’ wings beat 130 or more times per second.

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. 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.
5. Bumble bees are in trouble.

According to an article,  “The Buzz About Bumble
Bees<http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Gardening/Archives/2014/Bumblebees.aspx>,”
in the current issue of *National
Wildlife*<http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife.aspx>,
four once-common, widespread North American species have vanished from
large portions of their former ranges. A fifth may already be extinct.
Scientists report similar losses across Europe, South America and Asia.

Bumble 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 <http://www.xerces.org/> and deputy chair of
the IUCN Bumble Bee Specialist
Group<http://www.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/species/who_we_are/ssc_specialist_groups_and_red_list_authorities_directory/invertebrates/bumblebee_specialist_group/>.
A new, not-yet-published analysis conducted for IUCN concludes that *up to
a third of North America’s nearly 50 bumble bee species are declining*.
Helping Bumble Bees at Home

The good news is that all of us—particularly wildlife
gardeners<http://www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Garden-for-Wildlife.aspx>—can
help bumble bees in and around our own homes. Here are some of the most*
important steps you can take*:
Provide pollen and nectar for food.

Active from early spring through late fall, bumble bees need access to a
variety of nectar- and pollen-producing flowers so food will be available
throughout all stages of the insects’ life cycle. Native plants are
best<http://www.wildflower.org/collections/collection.php?collection=xerces_bumble>because
they have coevolved with indigenous bumble bees.
Ensure bumble bees have nesting sites.

Most bumble bees nest underground in holes made by larger animals, while
others nest aboveground in abandoned bird nests, grass tussocks or cavities
such as hollow logs or spaces beneath rocks. In gardens, they may also use
compost piles or unoccupied birdhouses.
Protect hibernation habitat.

Because most queens overwinter in small holes on or just below the ground’s
surface, avoid raking, tilling or mowing your yard until April or May. If
you do need to mow, do so with the mower blade set at the highest safe
level.
Eliminate pesticides.

Both insecticides and herbicides should be avoided. In particular, steer
clear of systemic pesticides such as neonicotinoids, which are taken up by
the vascular systems of plants. This means bees and other pollinators are
exposed to the poison long after a product has been applied when they feed
on the plants’ nectar and pollen.
Help scientists study bumble bees.

Report the bees you see in your yard or community to Bumble Bee
Watch<http://www.bumblebeewatch.org/>,
a new citizen-science project sponsored by the Xerces Society and five
North American partners.
Garden For Bumble Bees

*May is Garden for Wildlife Month
<http://www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Garden-for-Wildlife/Garden-Month.aspx?campaignid=WH14X2DSCXX&s_subsrc=Web_Content_CWH_GFWM_Blog_Bumblebees>*—the
perfect time of year to establish or improve your habitat for bumble bees
and other native wildlife.
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