Attracting Bumblebees to your Garden
- Jizzy Green
- Jun 30, 2024
- 4 min read
Who doesn’t love those big fluffy-bottomed buzzy guys? They are such amazing pollinators, the gardener’s delightful co-worker doing all the pollinating with neither tea break nor payment. So, how do we attract more of them to the garden?
Before going into what to plant to attract them, I wanted to share a little of what I have learned about our fluffy bum bee buddies. I have just read Dave Goulson’s “A Sting in the Tail”. Did you know that all the bumblebees in New Zealand were introduced here from England way back in the late 1800’s? Cattle farmers were buying in red clover seed to feed their cows and, as it was expensive to import each year, they wondered why they couldn’t save any seed. They soon realised that they needed bumblebees to pollinate the red clover to produce seed, so they imported the bumblebees as well. Just like that! No tight border control or MAF in those days. But the bees all died on the 3 month ship journey over here, so they tried again a few years later. This time in 1885, about 50 of the 200 survived and they were successfully released into New Zealand. They followed this up with a repeat importing of our buzzy friends the following year, with similar results - about 50 of the 200 survived to be successfully released. Today, all the bumblebees we see, are ancestors of those original immigrant 100 bees!
And to make the story even more interesting, did you know that two of the 4 species that survived, actually became extinct back in the UK during the Industrial Revolution (mass agricultural activity)?? This led to a massive, expensive exercise to capture some of those bees in NZ to reintroduce back into the UK! That was unsuccessful, and they came to realise that the NZ short-haired bumblebees must have originated from just two queens of that variety, thus interbreeding has weakened this particular species here even though they seem to survive okay in NZ. So the project to reintroduce them to the UK failed and they then had to look to Sweden to “import” short-haired bumblebees back into the UK successfully.
So some incredibly interesting facts:
Bumblebees are excellent pollinators for tomato plants (in Australia, workers needed to hand pollinate tomatoes in commercial tunnels, meaning huge expensive production costs).
Bumblebees make up 250 species in the genus Bombus, part of one of the bee families, Apidae.
Bumblebees are able to fly in cooler temperatures and lower light levels than bees.
Bumblebees harvest nectar and pollen from flowering plants. Some have very long tongues to extract the nectar which honey bees can’t reach.
They live in smaller groups than honey bees and do not tend to swarm.
Bumblebees hibernate underground.
They scent mark flowers they have visited.
Bumblebees will not die if they use their sting, whereas honey bees will. The males can’t sting at all, while the queens will only sting if provoked, they are generally non-aggressive.
Bumble bees eat pollen and nectar, and need access to a diversity of flowers throughout their life cycle. Of particular importance is providing blooms both early and late in the season.
Male worker bumble bees have relatively short lives – four weeks is the average lifespan. Queens have a longer lifespan, up to one year. At the end of the season, only the new queens will hibernate through winter, to establish new colonies the following year, while the rest of the colony dies.
Bumblebees “shiver” to stay warm. This bee species boasts fast-beating wings that help vibrate blossoms until they release large amounts of pollen, a method called "buzz pollination," which helps flowers be more productive. Thanks to their unique pollinating skills, these tiny insects are integral to the survival of many different plant species. They can pollinate 450 tomato plants in a tunnel house, per hour!
Their wings beat 200x per second.
They are a flying miracle, because their heavy bodies and short wings make them unlikely to be successful fliers. But no one told them that!
Bumblebee eyes are larger than honeybee eyes. They need their complex eye system to navigate and pick up colors, shapes, and UV markings on flowers. For that reason, bumblebees have five eyes, including two main ones with about 6,000 facets and three smaller ones on the top of their heads..
A single bumblebee can do 50x the work of a honey bee.
They can fly up to 54km per hour!
Such a truly remarkable little creature, you can see why it pays to encourage them into the backyard for pollination rewards. How to do that?
Reduce the need to use harmful, toxic sprays
Plant lots of wildflowers, herbs and lupins (see Kings Seeds Wildflower Mix)
Plant Viper’s Bugloss if you have a large lifestyle block. Not suitable for small gardens and young children. This plant can cause an allergic reaction if touched, but bumblebees absolutely LOVE it.
To become more involved, join the Bumblebee Conservation Trust NZ
