Is It A Bird? Is It A Plane? It's a Bumblebee!
By Andrea Peck
They look like a blimp, fly like a helicopter and have a faster metabolic rate than a hummingbird. Did you know they can fly up to 10 miles per hour? How can this be? They look like they are perpetually late.
Everybody loves a bumblebee. With their rotund bodies and fuzzy pile (hair), they are the teddy bears of the insect world. Recently I found a few lingering near me in the garden. It took a minute of floundering investigation before I realized I was not being surrounded (though the thought of the Africanized bee did cross my mind.) In fact, they were circling downward towards their in-ground nest. The site of their humble abode lay in the soil near the corner of two connecting raised beds – a stylish spot with its own fenced yard that blots out high winds and acts as a warming element.
Bumblebees are social insects that live in a colony with one queen. Usually there are less than 50 occupants in a colony. The female bee travels up to two miles collecting honey to bring back to the nest. She may visit up to 100 flowers in an effort to fill her honeystomach.
Honeystomach?
You heard that right. The bumblebee doesn't mess around with proper sounding words like ‘honey bladder' or the like. Terminology is as colorful and fuzzy as the real article. It seems they have their own language, kind of like couples who wear matching outfits. It could be worse – consider ‘honeytummy.'
Despite the funny descriptors, bumblebees work really hard. It is estimated that a teaspoon of honey equates to approximately 80 foraging trips, 320 flight miles and 80,000 flowers. A moment of pause may be necessary before you take your afternoon tea with honey.
Pollen is collected in the pollen basket. Why not? I'd love to hear the jokes those researchers come up with when they are giddy from lack of sleep. The pollen basket is located on the hind legs of the females, since they are the ones who are collecting the pollen. Across all those miles. Single handedly. Ahem.
We won't broach that subject.
The wing of the bumblebee creates an electrical charge that pushes pollen from the flower onto the legs of the bee. The bee has three pairs of legs. On the back legs, hairs that act as combs brush pollen into the pollen baskets. These giant pockets make the females easy to spot. With pollen, the baskets look yellow, red or orange, depending on the pollen and without pollen, the baskets are a shiny black.
Despite what you may think, honeybees are not idling about in a bubble-headed manner. They are utilizing sophisticated bee tools to determine where they can get the best pollen (protein) and nectar (carbohydrates) combination plate. They use a variety of methods to this end. Flower color, fragrance, petal texture and air humidity are taken into consideration. They are like black and yellow tuning forks. Of late, another tool in their cadre has been discovered: electricity. It seems that the bumblebee is deciphering information (such as a recent visit by another bee) from the electrical charge present in the flower.
Do they sting? Female bumblebees do sting, but they don't show much interest in it. Their main defense is their aposematic or bright warning, coloring. Distinct from honey bees, the bumblebee is capable of pulling its stinger out and reusing it multiple times. A honey bee has a barbed stinger that when connected to our soft, stretchy skin makes a quick exit nearly impossible. The desire to leave the scene causes the honey bee to pull with such ferocity that the stinger, attached to the abdomen, comes off and the bee, when disengaged, flies off to die.
Bumblebee's flight muscles must be 86 ° Fahrenheit in order to fly. The bee is able to raise their temperature by shivering in a similar way that humans do. Bees that have adequate supplies of food in storage generally have no need to brave cold temperatures. If you find a downed bee, you can often help it by placing it in a warm spot.
Bumblebees are important agricultural and natural pollinators. Unfortunately, their numbers have been declining to the point that some experts believe they should be listed as endangered. Disease, habitat destruction and pesticides are some of the major causes. Researchers are aware that the honey bee has been subject to a number of devastating diseases; they are now finding that the native bumblebees may not be immune to these same confounding disorders.
Don't forget to welcome these pleasant creatures into your yard – they, along with all bees, are doing the arduous job of providing us with flowers, food and enjoyment.