The latest in bee news

[randy_byers]

Disease dooming native bumblebees

They work in the cold when honeybees are still snug in their hives, and cloudy days don't stop them either.

Bumblebees are workhorse pollinators, depended on to pollinate everything from cranberries and blueberries to hothouse tomatoes.

But native bumblebees are in trouble, victims of diseases some scientists say are spread by commercial bumblebees shipped around North America to pollinate crops.

While much attention has been given to the plight of European honeybees, dying in droves in so-called colony collapse disorder, the sharp decline of some species of native bumblebees has been largely overlooked.

So much for my observation that local bumblebee populations have actually increased in the wake of the die-off of honeybees. Then again, it could be that native bumblebees are more threatened in agricultural areas where the commercial bees are more likely to be introduced. It could be that in non-agricultural urban areas like my neighborhood they're doing fine.

Comments

[kim-huett.livejournal.com]

It's quite possible that urban populations of bumblebees have increased due to decreased competition while rural populations have collapsed due to disease. If bumblebees don't range widely (I don't know because they're no native to my part of the world) then it would follow that and disease would spread slowly from region to region because of limited contacts. It's possible that this epidemic could peter out before reaching your area or not reach Seattle till next year. That probably depends on the life cycle of the bumblebee, the shorter it is the more likely that a natural circuit breaker like winter will see the epidemic die out.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I get the feeling that bumblebees may be very local indeed, because my ceanothus hedge gets just smothered in bees at the same time that ceanothus plants within walking distance of my house don't seem to attract many bees at all. It probably depends on whether the bees have a place to build nests, and I'm beginning to wonder if the little park up the street is where the local ones live. Many species like dead trees or wood fences for their nests.