By Bev Johnson

Master Gardener

Petunia hates bugs. Anything with wings buzzing around her sends her into panic mode. The one exception is bumble bees. “They are so cute and fuzzy,” she says. She isn’t aware of all the good deeds these little fuzz-balls do. They are very effective pollinators of many fruits and vegetables including tomatoes, raspberries, cranberries, peppers, squash, and blueberries, as well as dozens of native wildflowers.

All bees have evolved alongside flowering plants and have developed interdependent relationships with many of these plants. Until relatively recently, these pollination services were taken for granted. As long as crops were doing well, no one was really concerned. Then crops started to get bigger, occupying more land. The wild lands at the edge of fields were plowed up for more crops. There weren’t enough wild pollinators to pollinate all of them.

There are over 20,000 species of bees in the world but only one has dominated the list of managed pollinators. That is the honeybee. Luckily, she is well adapted for use as a managed pollinator. They forage on a wild variety of crops, have colonies with tens of thousands of bees, and more conveniently, they adapt well to living in boxes that can be transported, not only from field to field but from state to state. On an individual bee to bee basis, bumblebees are more efficient pollinators than honeybees for most crops. A bumble bee colony typically has from 50 to 500 bees and can transport more pollen per bee. The honeybee colony has between 10,000 to 30,000 bees so they make up for their inefficiency with sheer numbers. 

Over the past 50 or so years, Colony Collapse Disorder and overuse of insecticides pesticides, parasitic mites, viruses, microsporidians and fungi have been attacking our honeybees. Part of the reason why honeybee populations have been so afflicted by these problems is that they are transported long distances across the country in close quarters to pollinate different crops. The diseases and pests are transported right along with them. That’s why these problems can spread so quickly through the bee population. The same is true if bumblebees are transported. These problems don’t arise with locally raised bumblebees. Oddly enough, bumblebees are often used as supplemental pollinators of many crops.

There are several reasons to use bumblebees for pollinators. Some have long tongues. This gives them an advantage over the short-tongued honeybee when foraging on flowers with long tubes like red clover. They work longer hours as they will fly in cooler temperatures and lower light, thus improving crops facing inclement weather. They have a different way of pollinating flowers. She grabs the pollen producing part of the flower in her jaws and vibrates her wings shaking the heck out of the flower. This shakes the pollen out that would otherwise stay trapped. Tomatoes need buzz pollination for effective fruit set. Who knew? They adapt well to living in greenhouses, making them a great pollinator for the commercial greenhouse grower.

There are several ways you can induce bumblers to hang around your gardens. They nest either in clumps of grass above ground or in holes in the ground, typically old mouse nests. Leave some tall unmowed grass for them to nest in. Plant flowers. Early spring flowers are very important as that is when the baby bees are getting their start. All bees are especially attracted to flowers that are blue, purple and yellow. Plant native flowers and flat faced single flowers to encourage them to hang around your gardens. And when they buzz around you, don’t wave your arms around. It irritates the heck out of them. You’ll get stung!