Bumble Bee

Bumble Bee, originally uploaded by starikarp.

Bumble Bees play an important role in pollination and there has been concern that numbers are reducing. Climate, vegetation (changes in use of agricultural land), competition from other bees, disease and the use of pesticides are possible factors. W are being encouraged by English Nature to manage our gardens more sensitively for wildlife and a leaflet to ‘Help save the Bumblebee’ is being made available. Bluebells, bugle, rosemary, dead-nettle, geraniums, foxglove, honeysuckle, monkshood are identified as being ideal plants to add to our gardens specifically for bumblebees.

As well as creating local oasis's for Bumble Bees, there are a few things that we can do to assess the bumble bee populations in our gardens. Identification of individual species creates a problem for reliable recording by untrained observers, but recording groups of Bumble Bees determined by general banding patterns is being looked at in survey by Rothamsted Research and it is also initiating a survey focussing on recording nests:
"Like all bees, bumblebees eat only pollen and nectar from flowers, and we know quite a lot about their tastes. Different bumblebee species like different flowers and they need a continual succession of flowers within range of their nests throughout the spring, summer and early autumn. Apart from food, bumblebees also require sites where they can nest. We know a bit about where they like to nest as well, but not enough to clearly advise landowners, farmers and gardeners on how best to provide nesting sites. This survey should help us to find out exactly how important different types of habitat, such as gardens, hedgerows, grassland, or woodland are as nesting sites for bumblebees, and whether different species have particular preferences".