Bumble Bee Buzz Pollination for Your Plants

By Eric Grissell
Published on June 3, 2020
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Most Bumble bees are true natives of our soils and have coevolved with our native plants.
Most Bumble bees are true natives of our soils and have coevolved with our native plants.
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“Bees, Wasps, and Ants,” by Eric Grissell gives an in-depth look at bees and the important role insects have in gardens.
“Bees, Wasps, and Ants,” by Eric Grissell gives an in-depth look at bees and the important role insects have in gardens.

Bees are one of the most important insects to us. Not only are they great garden pollinators, they maintain biological balance and recycle soil nutrients. Learn all about bees — from bumble bee buzz pollination to what is threatening their population in Bees, Wasps, and Ants (Timber Press, 2010) by Eric Grissell. The following excerpt was taken from chapter 8, “The Garden’s Pollinators: Bees.”

You can purchase this book from the MOTHER EARTH NEWS store: Bees, Wasps, and Ants

Bumble Bees

We now move into the world of the truly social (that is, eusocial) bees. Worldwide there are more than 200 species of bumble bees (Bombus; Figure 128), with about 50 species in North America. These most often appear as colorful combinations of flying black-and-yellow fur coats, but there are a few black-and-orange or just plain black species as well. Bumble bees certainly receive much less press than honey bees, but unlike their cousins, most are true natives of our soils and have coevolved with our native plants. Bumble bees differ from honey bees in several respects. For one thing, neither bumble bee colonies nor the old queen survive the winter. In late summer or autumn a number of reproductives are produced, including males and new queens. Mating takes place outside the nest, either on the ground or in the air. Males die and new queens either return to the old abandoned nest or seek out an underground hibernation site in which to overwinter. The following spring each surviving female will become the founder of her own colony.

Bumble bees nest in a variety of situations, either above or below ground depending on the species. They are opportunists to a degree, seeking out hollow areas in which to build their relatively small nests. Abandoned rodent burrows are a preferred site, but I have seen nests in unused bird houses and have been told they use old mattresses and upholstered chairs lying in the dump. The queen begins her nest in the spring by constructing a hollow wax basin in which she places pollen and another in which she places nectar she has collected. When enough pollen has accumulated, she lays one to two dozen fertilized eggs and caps the basin with more wax. The collected nectar is used by the queen as fuel during this process and eventually for workers on their outbound flights. Then she sits astride the egg chamber, warming it with contractions from her wing muscles. Heating speeds egg hatch, which takes place in a few days. After the eggs hatch the queen takes off and gathers more pollen and nectar supplies, during which the larvae take one to two weeks to develop into adults. These then become the initial group of workers that create more cells, collect pollen and nectar, feed new offspring, and guard the nest while the queen continues to lay eggs. Workers perform functions as needed and may live from a couple of weeks to several months. Bumble bee colonies in temperate climates may reach a hundred or so individuals per nest. Heading into autumn the queen begins to lay unfertilized eggs, which develop into males, and workers supply more food to some of the larvae, which develop into queens. Reproductives leave the nest, mate, the males die, and the newly mated queens overwinter to begin a new colony the following spring. The old queen and her offspring perish.

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