You may have spotted some adorably plump buzzing bees visiting the flowers in your garden. These big fuzzy black and yellow insects are most likely bumble bees! Bumble bees are important pollinators that play a key role in plant reproduction and our food supply. Here’s a closer look at these fascinating creatures.
Appearance of Big Fat Bumble Bees
Bumble bees have very round fuzzy bodies covered in branched hairs called pile which gives them their cute, plump appearance. They have the typical bee black and yellow striped pattern, which serves as a warning to predators that they can sting. Bumble bees reach about 1 inch in length on average.
Queens and female workers have stout bodies while male drones are slimmer. The females have stingers at the tip of their abdomens. Males do not have stingers. Overall, bumble bees are fatter and furrier than honey bees or carpenter bees.
Nesting Habits of Bumble Bees
Bumble bees live in small colonies of 50-500 individuals, with one queen. This is vastly smaller than a honey bee hive, which can contain 50,000 bees!
Bumble bee nests are often underground in abandoned rodent burrows or cavities. The queen constructs wax pots inside the cavity to store nectar and pollen. The queen also lays fertilized eggs within the wax pots in early spring to start the colony.
Foraging and Feeding
Bumble bees have short tongues and feed on flowers with short corollas, mainly composite and legume flowers. They use a technique called “buzz pollination” where they grab the flower in their legs and vibrate their wing muscles to dislodge pollen.
Bumble bees do not store much food. They collect only enough nectar and pollen to feed the developing larvae and queen. This makes them vulnerable to starvation when flowers are not blooming.
Behavior and Roles of Bees
Bumble bees live in a caste system, like honey bees. Each bee has a specialized role.
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The queen starts new colonies in spring after emerging from hibernation. She lays eggs and rarely leaves the nest.
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Female worker bees forage for nectar and pollen. They also build up wax pots and care for the larvae.
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Male drones mate with new queens. They do not have stingers and do not collect food.
Bumble bees are not aggressive. Female workers can sting but rarely do unless the nest is disturbed. Overall, bumble bees are docile, important pollinators.
Conservation Status
Many bumble bee species are declining due to habitat loss, climate change, pesticides, and pathogens. Three species in the UK have already gone extinct. Continued declines could be catastrophic for food crop pollination.
Providing bee-friendly habitats and avoiding pesticide use protects local bumble bees. You can also help scientists track bumble bees by uploading photos to apps like Bumble Bee Watch.
Quick Carpenter Bee Identification
We all know what a bumblebee looks like. Theyre the big, puffy, black and yellow bees that fly around our flower pots and gardens. There is a type of bee called a carpenter bee that is big, puffy, black and yellow, and black from the middle of its body to the tip of its abdomen. This is a visual characteristic that can be seen from several feet away. In case you are farther away, you can also tell these bees apart by where they like to hang out. Some bumblebees like to hang out in places where carpenter bees hang out, but bumblebees don’t usually hang out where carpenter bees do. Carpenter bees establish their nests in wood. Bumblebees do not. There is a small chance that the big bees you see near your roof are bumblebees.
Quick Guide to Carpenter Bee Damage
It is probably carpenter bee damage if:
- You find circular holes bored into wood. The holes made by carpenter bees are remarkable round. You may see these on decks, stairs, soffits, and other places.
- Along the edge of your deck or roof, you can see holes that look like Morse code.
- You see a trench in a piece of untreated wood.
- There is sawdust on the ground outside, and big, fat bees have been buzzing around that spot.
When carpenter bees attack a home, the damage they do is accumulative. In the long run, they can weaken stairs and railings, crack foundations, make deck corners sink, and put stress on a home’s structure. More so than anything else, they make unsightly holes everywhere. No home is better with carpenter bees around.
Protect your investment from these frustrating wood-boring bees. If you live in Pennsylvania, Witt Pest Management can help you get rid of pests using safe methods and products. We are Pittsburghs Oldest and most advanced pest control company. Find out what over a century of experience will do to safeguard your property.
giant fat hairy bumble bee
FAQ
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