The striped flower lovers are welcome guests in the garden. We have summarized the five most important facts and questions about bumblebees for you.
Bumblebees are easy to spot by their sometimes clumsy flight through the garden. The heavy insects take off by creating negative pressure through very fast, circular wing movements.
We have compiled everything else you should know about the peaceful pollinators in your garden in this article.
Bumblebee species: How to identify and recognize bumblebees
Although the bumblebee is related to the honey bee, not only do they have a different way of life, but they are also easy to distinguish from bees. Bumblebees are much fuller than the slender bees and also have luxuriant hair. However, distinguishing between all 41 bumblebee species native to Germany is much more difficult. Not only do many species look very similar, as flower visitors, bumblebees usually do not stay long enough on the flower to be able to identify them in detail.
This is how you can distinguish the six most common German bumblebee species:
- Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris): White abdomen, abdomen black with two yellow stripes ; there are several species of bumble bee that are difficult to distinguish. They form large colonies and are also sold for pollination purposes.
- Garden Bumblebee (Bombus hortorum): White abdomen, abdomen black with three yellow stripes; The garden bumblebee, as its name suggests, is often found in gardens. It is quite large and, with its long proboscis, has specialized in long-tubed flowers such as those of lamiaceae.
- Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum): White abdomen, reddish brown breast; Tree bumblebees live in forests and gardens and nest in old tree trunks and birdhouses.
- Meadow Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum): Orange abdomen, one or two yellow stripes on the breast; Meadow bumblebees are relatively small and mainly fly in open areas.
- Rock Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius): Orange abdomen, abdomen black; male stone bumblebees have a distinctive coloration with yellow hairs on the abdomen making it difficult to distinguish from meadow bumblebees.
- Hummel (Bombus pascuorum): Grey-black to reddish brown abdomen; the color of the bumblebee's breast varies with region. In the north it is often dark, in the south rather reddish. In general, the common field bumblebees have a wide variety of color variations. Field bumblebees live in many different habitats throughout Germany.
Bumblebee nests: How to recognize them
Depending on the species, bumblebees like to nest in empty cavities, be it abandoned bird boxes, hollow tree trunks or burrows. Every now and then you can discover a bumblebee's nest in such places in summer. They can be recognized by the spherical honeycomb. The queen remains in her nest as soon as the first workers fly out. Bumblebee nests are under strict protection and must not be removed. Since only one queen survives the winter, the nest will be abandoned in the fall anyway. The following spring, the queen bumblebee will colonize a new nest.
Bumblebees can also be housed in bumblebee nest boxes. Find out more here.
Can bumblebees sting?
Although bumblebees also have a sting, they are very lazy to sting. Unlike wasps and some honeybee colonies, which are quick to become aggressive, bumblebees are not aggressive. Bumblebees only sting when they are in total defence, when they are afraid of death. Bumblebees threaten to sting. This is done by lifting a middle leg. Even more urgent is the threat of lying on your back and stretching out the spike. Normally, however, bumblebees are peaceful. If you approach them very carefully while they are sitting on a flower, you can even stroke their abdomen.
Can you buy bumblebees?
Bumblebees are important pollinators and increase crop yield. For this reason, they are often released in agricultural greenhouses to replace missing pollinators. In addition, like other wild bees, they fly at cooler temperatures than honey bees. Therefore, some bumblebee species are commercially available. Dark bumblebees are particularly easy to breed and sell, as they accept artificial nesting aids and form colonies of up to 600 individuals. Bumblebees can also be purchased for your own garden, but these are forIndividuals often very expensive. Rather, one should pay attention to a suitable environment in order to be able to welcome more bumblebees in the garden. If the environment is suitable for bumblebees, they will settle themselves.
How to feed bumblebees?
If there is a sufficient supply of flowers, it is not necessary to feed bumblebees. Since bumblebees are generalists, i.e. they pollinate countless different types of flowers, the variety of flowers in your garden is the only thing that matters. If flowers are present all year round, bumblebees should not have a lack of food. With an insect-friendly seed mix like the Plantura bee pasture, this is not a problem. It contains a wide variety of herbs and flowers so that the bumblebees and bees in your garden are optimally cared for for months.
When visiting flowers, bumblebees also absorb compounds produced by plants such as p-hydroxycinnamic acid, which strengthens the bumblebees' resistance. At most, cool weather in spring can be critical. Nevertheless, supplementary feeding is possible and easy to implement, at least for bumblebee colonies that have been bought or settled in nesting boxes. As feed, two parts of fructose (fruit sugar) are mixed with two parts of conventional sugar and three parts of water - i.e. in a ratio of 2:2:3. For example, the solution can be placed in an upside-down Lego brick so that the bumblebees can drink. The waterer is then placed in the porch of the bumblebee's nest.
The most important things about bumblebees in brief:
- In Germany, six of the 41 native bumblebees are still quite common
- Bumblebee nests are preferably found in abandoned cavities in the ground and trees, as well as in nesting boxes
- Bumblebees can theoretically sting, but are exceptionally peaceful
- Bumblebees are reproduced and released on a large industrial scale for pollination purposes; a purchase is therefore possible, but not the best way to protect bumblebees
- Bumblebees can be fed a mixture of two parts fructose, two parts sugar and three parts water
If you want to introduce bumblebees to your garden, a bumblebee nesting box can help. Find out more here.