The American Bumblebee Has Vanished From Eight States

I was just out in the garden today looking at some marigolds I planted and noticed how much the bumble bees liked them. There are at least three or four types of bumble bees around my area. The problem in my opinion is the wildflowers they need are missing from these states. We have plenty of wild flowers in bloom still. I think I should go take pictures and identify what I've been seeing.

In two decades, the insect’s population has declined by nearly 90 percent due to a combination of threats, including habitat loss, pesticides and diseases
Elizabeth Gamillo Daily Correspondent October 6, 2021

. . . The species has completely vanished from eight states, including Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Idaho, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Oregon, Ben Turner reports for Live Science. The bumblebee species have declined by 99 percent in New York. In the Midwest and Southeast, population numbers have dropped by more than 50 percent.

. . . Depending on the results of a forthcoming year-long review, the American bumblebee could be legally protected under the ESA, which would provide rules and framework for saving the species from extinction, reports Live Science. Currently, only two bumblebee species, the rusty patched and Franklin's, receive ESA protection.

. . . Researchers can trace the bee's plummeting population numbers back to multiple threats, including pesticides, habitat loss, climate change, diseases and competition from non-native honeybees. States with the most significant dip in bee numbers have the largest increase in the use of pesticides like neonicotinoids, insecticides, and fungicides, per Live Science.

www.smithsonianmag.com

ETA: The domesticated European honey bee a non-native bee (obviously). I wonder how those are doing right now? Oh, and have a look at the kicker at the end of this article. I probably shouldn't say anything about the bees I might find here, or any other creepy crawly, there are some that are very usual.

If the bee is placed under federal protection, farmers or developers who harm the insects could face up to $13,000 in fines each time one is killed, Live Science reports.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

I've seen plenty of bumblebees in this area, almost more than honey bees honestly this year. There are always a lot of different bee species out at my folks' place in the country. They get bumblebees and wood-boring bees, and they have a wild colony of honeybees that has lived in a corner of the old farm house for literally years, maybe going on two decades or more now. They were installed before my grandparents passed.

My folks have tried to get a beekeeper to come out move that colony and maybe take possession of it, but no one will.

a reply to: ketsuko

Yea, carpenter bees. They look like big bumble bees but bore holes into wood siding on houses and cabins. Perfectly circular holes like a inch drill bit made them.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

Erm... maybe just anecdotal here but...

I'm an avid gardener in Montana and this year noticed that the bumblebees for the first time in ages actually outnumber the honeybees, despite quite a number of honeybee hives in my area.

In the middle of September I went and visited a property of mine in North Dakota... it is just a place where I am storing some equipment.

I noticed that there too the bumblebees outnumbered the honeybees in the area.

So as far as bumblebees being extinct in North Dakota, perhaps they missed the Williston area?

originally posted by: MichiganSwampBuck
a reply to: ketsuko

Yea, carpenter bees. They look like big bumble bees but bore holes into wood siding on houses and cabins. Perfectly circular holes like a inch drill bit made them.

A carpenter bee looks nothing like a bumble bee.

You just have to look at their ass... hairy or no?

originally posted by: Lumenari

originally posted by: MichiganSwampBuck
a reply to: ketsuko

Yea, carpenter bees. They look like big bumble bees but bore holes into wood siding on houses and cabins. Perfectly circular holes like a inch drill bit made them.

A carpenter bee looks nothing like a bumble bee.

You just have to look at their ass... hairy or no?

Completely different behavior too, and they look different. Bumblebees still have black and yellow, but the wood-boring bees are pretty much all black.

I remember the story about my grandfather saying they didn't sting, so messed with one ... oops!

Early in the spring the bumbles were more numerous than the European honey bees here in my swampy domain as others here have said. It was well after the dandelions and short lawn clovers bloomed before I saw a normal number of domestic honey bees. Hornets and yellow jackets have been far fewer though. Wild bees and things like hover flies and bee imitators have been about the same, far less than the others.

It was years ago when I saw a carpenter bee and I only saw it once when it went into it's hole. Never got a good look at it, but sure learned to spot the damage.

ETA: After looking at some pictures of both I can see the difference, but they are similar looking. I know that bugger I saw was pretty big. I didn't want to mess with it.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

I am seeing the honeybees more now that it's fall and they're looking for anything that might be food. So they're coming in to anything sweet. Still not seeing them swarming trash like I used to.

This is a big planet and they cannot possibly check *everywhere* for disappearing bumblebees, honeybees, salmon etc.

It's more accurate to say that they did not find bumblebees in the areas where they looked for them.

And, they cannot possibly have looked *everywhere* for *every* bumblebee, honeybee, salmon, etc.

I have a friend who is into beekeeping. Short version, been can be plentiful in one field, and nowhere to be seen in the next field 50 yards over.

Don't fall for word games.

a reply to: ketsuko

Right before I took the humming bird feeders down, they were covered in honey bees, but not wasps and hornets.

I used to find a rare butterfly just down the road twenty years ago. The last time I checked, it was overgrown with small trees and no wildflowers they needed to survive were there. It's the same with any bug or spider or what have you. They all have specfic plants and insects they rely on to live. It's due to a lack of wildflowers and native plants, it is the beginning of that food chain, plants, bugs, birds, etc.

So yes, in order to find them, you must look where they are. Where they go is where the habitat is, that old empty field or a utility easement or whatever has what they need. Your not going to find too many bumble bees in a suburban area with short "weed" free lawns, you'll do better along easements (RR, highway, roads) and on abandoned or undeveloped properties in those areas.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

Well and bumblebees tend to nest underground too. It's a problem if you're mowing and irritate them. People tend to not like that, and then there goes the nest.

I think maybe the real consideration here is not the welfare of the iconic bumble bee, but the monetary fine per bee if you are caught eliminating a nest in your awning.

If the bee is placed under federal protection, farmers or developers who harm the insects could face up to $13,000 in fines each time one is killed, Live Science reports.

Brandon needs that extra cash to fill the new budget.

ETA: Disclaimer - I love bumble bees. I'd never hurt those buzzing, bumbling fuzzy little guys. They're our buddies and should be encouraged to infest my home.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

To say nothing of what happens if you get a nest in your yard and then can't mow near it for the summer so your neighbors complain and the city gets cranky.

a reply to: ketsuko

That just means more revenue for the government! $13,000 per bee mortality and a local ordinance infraction that the feds will prevent you from correcting. If the bumble bees move in, then you'd better move out if they place it on the endangered species list.

We usually have about three or four kinds of bumble bees here, the orange and the yellow and the huge ones which are actually a type of their own. Then there is the itsy bitsy bumblebee, I thought they were regular baby bees, but I guess they are a different variety. This year I did not see any bumble bees till late in July, and then only a few. very few honeybees too. I did not mow the lawn too much, and I leave the thistles grow and flower. There were plenty of flowers, just no bees. usually there are over a hundred bees in our yard area most of the day, this year nothing for months then just a few. I figured it might have something to do with all the firefighting chemicals they are spraying on the forest fires or something. Actually the hornets are way down too, but lots of mosquitoes this year and those noseeums. I had zero fireflies and I did not see one dragonfly outside this summer. I don't know what is going on this year. That worries me more than the politicians actions do. No bees meant the garden did not do well either, tomatoes were way late, beans were sparse, and the cucumbers got flowers but no bees to pollinate them.

I guess they have succeeded in killing off the bumblebees in many states with spraying of chemicals and introducing a type of bee that carries a disease from a different area of the world. But it has not hit my house before, maybe someone got some honey bees around here that spread the disease.

Do you want to see some bees? Plant a lot of flowers. They will come.

It's not rocket science.

Also, I cancelled my "lawn care specialists" today. No more pesticides for my lawn, thanks.

a reply to: rickymouse

I don't believe I saw any fire flies at the end of this summer. Last year they were spectacular in the evenings. Dragon flies were good, mayflies and later Dobson flies were less though I believe. We had that bad Gypsy moth infestation this year though, screwed up everything and killed a lot of trees. It was Biblical with that Gypsy moth plague.

a reply to: ketsuko

For some reason the bumblebees around here tend not to make nests in the ground. They tend to make them in brush piles somewhere, and sometimes up in a tree or in all kinds of weird locations. I have had one in my garage sidekick where I keep my old tractor, I cut up a lot of old fallen logs in the woods and I hardly run into a ground nest with any sort of bee in it here. There are some big stump piles where I pushed the stumps, I think that is where they have their nests.