BUMBLE BEES LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK
Bumblebees are large black and yellow furry insects that are native to North America. There are more than two hundred fifty species of bumblebees found worldwide. Historically the bumblebee has also been known as the humblebee because as they fly, they hum. However, in recent times the clumsy-looking furry bee with its pathetically small wings and chubby body has come to be known as the bumblebee. The collecting of pollen and nectar from flowers by bumblebees is a common sight on Long Island, but they can become a pest control issue when nesting close to Nassau County homes. Bumblebees usually nest underground in vacant rodent burrows, under compost piles, or even inside walls of Nassau County, Long Island residences, or buildings. If bumblebees have become a nuisance, contact Long island Bee Removal to have them promptly removed. Bumblebees are eusocial insects that are not typically aggressive but will defend themselves or their nest with repeated stings when threatened. Nighttime foraging wildlife such as skunks, foxes, and badgers will dig up bumblebee ground nests to eat the bee brood. Predators of adult bumblebees include birds, wasps, flies, and spiders. The stinging capacity of bumblebees may render them pests by many. However, like honeybees, bumblebees are also vital pollinators of many wildflower species and contribute to farm food production. The tomato plant is the primary crop pollinated by bumblebees. Bumblebees are essential to the pollination of peppers, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, cucumbers, cranberries, eggplant, and cantaloupe in green-houses and, to a lesser extent, cherries, almonds, and plums in open farms.
BUMBLEBEE LIFE CYCLE & REPRODUCTION - NASSAU COUNTY, LONG ISLAND
A bumblebee colony consists of three individuals (queen, female workers, and males, called drones). Nests are built in the spring by solitary, overwintered, fertilized bumblebee queens. Following the selection of a suitable nesting site, the queen bee will construct a nest and lay six to eight eggs that hatch in four to five days. The eggs hatch into larvae, resembling maggots that will feed on pollen and nectar collected by the queen. Over a three-week period, the larvae will progress through several stages before spinning a cocoon and completing the transformation, called metamorphosis, into adult worker bees. Following the first brood's rearing, the worker bees will provide food and nourishment to the bumblebee larvae and defend the colony while the queen bumblebee shifts her efforts to producing eggs. Over the summer, the bumblebee nest may produce fifty to four hundred worker bees. The life expectancy of a worker bumblebee is four to six weeks. As summer nears its end, the bumblebee colony produces new queen bees and drones, which will leave the nest to mate. Successfully mated queen bumblebees feed heavily on pollen and nectar, storing the nutrients as fat, which will provide energy during hibernation. Mated queens will dig holes two to five inches deep in well-drained ground soil, where they will hibernate during the winter months. Drones and worker bumblebees die off at the end of the season while hibernating fertilized queen bees survive to repeat the cycle the following spring.
