Bumblebee

I believe we are all familiar with this month’s feature insect. Many of us run in terror when we see it.  I am constantly amazed how quickly these relatively small creatures have the power to bring us to our knees in fear!  THE BUMBLE BEE, when angry, is a force to reckoned with.  Fortunately, these insects are masters of intimidation and not as dangerous as one might think.

My husband has been waging his own private battle with these creatures for many years. As he tells it, he was a teenager when he, his parents and 2 brothers were down by the pond on their farm.  They noticed bumble bees buzzing all around them, so they did the only logical thing they could think of and began swatting at them vigorously! Now, in my experience this only angers them more, BUT... I could be wrong.  Turns out, yes, indeed it did anger them.  His mom and youngest ran to the pickup and locked themselves inside, safe from the onslaught of bees.  These bees had worked themselves into such a frenzy that the only thing on their minds was attacking the intruders.  The three who remained in the pasture were badly stung.  Later when everything had calmed down, the family concluded that these bees had a nest nearby and unwittingly they had disturbed it.  Ordinarily, these bees are very calm and accepting of human’s presence.  In fact, for the most part they simply seem to ignore us.  The exception to this rule is when they are guarding a nest.  Disturb the nest and be prepared to run, or hopefully hide!  To this day my husband is still scared of these little beasts.

We have numerous flowerbeds, some with paths through them that lead to other parts of our yard.  All summer long we have many bumblebees that visit the flowers and I am always happy to have them there.  I know they are providing a valuable service -- pollinating my flowers.  I enjoy watching these little guys as they gather their pollen, their hind legs overflowing with the yellow powder from their collections.  I can't help but wonder how they fly with such a burden, but it doesn't seem to hinder them in the least.  If anything needs to be retrieved from the flowerbeds, my husband makes a special trip to find me and have me enter the lion’s den so to speak.  He refuses.  I can honestly say I have never been stung.  I work right along side these wonderful little creatures, pulling weeds, watering and just overall maintaining my flowers.  They do not seem to mind in the least that I am there.  Perhaps they appreciate what I am doing as much as I appreciate them.

Identifying Bumble Bees is not difficult, for few insects look quite like them.  For a bee, they are quite large (about 1- 1 1/4 inches), with black and yellow striped bodies, a fuzzy appearance and quite a large stinger protruding from the business end of their abdomen.  They have transparent wings with black veining.  They belong to the order Hymenoptera and can be found anywhere flowers are present.  Gardens, parks, meadows and open fields are all homes to these bees..  Bumblebees are important pollinators and are distributed throughout North America.  At the end of the warm season, the queen will mate with a male.  He then dies and the queen will over winter alone.  When spring approaches, she will start a new colony.  Nests are usually found in holes in the ground, but the queen may also start a colony in a hollow tree.  It takes approximately 10 days for the young to reach full size, then they will pupate. Adult females will appear soon after pupating. These females do not mate. After awhile males are produced and mate with the queen. The resulting offspring will produce females that breed, then the cycle will start all over again.

When you head outside this summer, and you see these lovely bees, try to resist the urge to pull off your hat and take a swat at these most beneficial insects. Instead stand back and watch them in action and you will find that you too are impressed with the job they do for us

(Story  by Shelly Cox, FOLNC Volunteer)
(Photo from EPA)