A New Appreciation of Bumblebees

As honeybee numbers are dwindling, are bumblebees good for pollinating the vegetable garden? We live in lower Alabama, and a few years ago we planted a fast-growing Royal Empress Paulownia tree. The past three years we get more and more bumblebees visiting the tree every spring … and I mean many, many bumblebees. Each year we get more, and this year was almost scary. There were so many hummingbirds too. We don’t know where they come from or where they go after the tree flowers, but I do wonder if the bumblebee is a good pollinator.

Thanks,

Dear DH,

Yes, your bumblebees ARE good pollinators! There are many vegetable and fruit plants where the pollen is down deeper, and the honeybee’s proboscis (a long, slender, hairy tongue that acts as a straw to bring food and water to the mouth) is not as long as a bumblebee’s. The pollen is further down in the flower than his proboscis can reach. That’s where your bumblebees come in. They can reach the pollen-containing interiors of deep flowering fruits and vegetables, such as blueberries. In addition, your hummingbirds are pollinators as well, especially of red flowering plants.

We got interested in honeybees because my husband wanted blueberries and he wanted pollinators to go along with them. After planting 105 blueberry bushes and then taking a beekeeping course at Mississippi State University, he realized that bees weren’t going to help him at all with his blueberries! However, we were also interested in the conservation aspect of beekeeping, so we put in a few hives anyway. I have to say that the bumblebees are more apparent around our fruits and vegetables than the honeybees. However, a good system incorporates all aspects of beneficial birds and insects, so we’ll continue to encourage all that we can.

The Editor