The American Bumblebee Has Vanished From Eight States

In WA I see bumblebees every season, especially since I got my artichokes established. This season was no different.

I was worried about honeybees tho, but they show up every time my oregano flowers without fail, just not in as huge of numbers.

My garden is a mix of planters, permaculture and lazy-man weeds everywhere, which means lots of random flowers for flying feeders. My pineapple sage has turned into the hummingbirds favorite and is about to late blossom

During the summer I leave the doors open and bumblebees manage to get in, and I always manage to catch them and send them back on their way... bees are def my friends

I’ve seen plenty of both bumblebees and honeybees where I live in Wisconsin. I love bumblebees. They are so pretty and very gentle. They are prolific on flowering bushes and all the pretty flowers here. The town I live in is very locally friendly to the flora and fauna. Maybe that’s why I see so many of them. I have many of them sitting on my patio railings, where they like to rest for a bit between all their hard work. I really want to pet one, but I’m allergic to bee stings, so I won’t take that chance.

No shortage of Bumblebees in my area... they are seasonal.

You know what is funny, somewhere on Youtube there is a video of Tim Pool and Alex Jones sitting outside in Tim's backyard talking about a huge decline in the bug population.

While they are talking you can see bugs flying all over the place and can hear a shiz load of crickets and all kinds of bugs sounds in the background... very funny. I need to start a 'Tim Pool is an idiot' Playlist lol.

I would find the video, but Youtube buried it somewhere with children's videos.

originally posted by: TrulyColorBlind

originally posted by: PorteurDeMort
We still have plenty of bumblebees in Maine. If you go to any field where wildflowers grow you'll find hundreds of them. I don't know why they would say they've disappeared when they clearly have not. Fear mongering maybe? All I know is that statement is not true at all.

Do you people know the difference between bumblebees and an American bumblebee? They didn't say all bumblebees were gone, just the American bumblebee species. Here is what an American bumblebee looks like. They're smaller than regular bumblebees and slimmer. They're easy to mistake for drone honey bees:

That's my picture, by the way. I have studied bees locally.

I found some pictures of the American bumble (Bombus pensylvanicus) and what I saw looked like most of those, not so much yours though. A field guide to Michigan has them in southern Michigan, I'm in mid lower peninsula so not sure if they are around here like I thought. Apparently there are a few that look similar to the American bumble bee.

I found a good article for the American bumble bee in Michigan from MSU's Michigan Natural Features Inventory.

Habitat This species favors prairies and grasslands and is rarely associated with extensive forests. Considered a foraging generalist, this bumble bee will regularly visit floral resources in dunes, marshes, forest edges, farmland and urban areas. Known foraging resources include milk-vetches (Astragalus spp.), thistles (Cirsium spp.), dogwoods (Cornus spp.), prairie-clovers (Dalea spp.), and sunflowers (Helianthus spp.), among other species (Wood et al. 2019). Nests are above ground among tufts of long grass, but occasionally occur underground in old rodent burrows. This species can also occupy agricultural landscapes, however associated pressures such as ground management and pesticides may restrict populations in these areas. Most Bombus queens overwinter in rotten wood or underground (COSEWIC 2010).

LINK

It looks like my county is in their range and I know where the habitats are, I think I have a chance of identifying some with this information. It is not too likely the ones I saw were American bumble bees here in the woods, but it's possible with the mix of habitat around here.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

I live in south Florida, my Wife Son and I walk around the neighborhood; almost every day just for the exercise. Almost every time; I notice two or more dead Bees. This has only been happening in the last few months. I've loved Bees ever since I was a a kid. I hope they survive whatever is happening to them. I'm not sure if it was Einstein that said something like, "If all the Bees die, we'll be dead within 10 years"? It was something like that.

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?

Now I am trying to figure out if I am a carpenter bee or a bumblebee.
Hairy ass... bumblebee or carpenter bee?

I always looked at their faces. Carpenter bees have a white or yellowish spot on their forehead.

Did anyone mention miner bees?
They can be confused with bumblebees also. They are hairy and come in both black and yellow versions.

From the looks of their preferred habitat, my guess is that they require native grasslands, specifically prairies and savanna lands. The tallgrass prairie habitat was a historical feature in my region, we even had the greater prairie chicken in the area until the early 1980s. But from the mid-1800s until the 1930s, land uses made the prairies into dust bowls they called a desert.

The Karner blue was the rare endangered butterfly I found down the road. It lives mainly on wild lupines and other flowering plants in savanna type grasslands. The property I found them on was an abandoned Christmas tree farm planted in a historic prairie area. It had some cutting done and was savanna like with prairie grasses and prickly pears in the openings. But after twenty years of no clearing or burning, the Christmas trees grew up and killed off the lupines and the Karner blues disappeared.

How much did being on the endangered species list help that small colony? Could the government have stepped in and forced the property owner to maintain the habitat for the butterfly? Maybe if I had told someone what I knew was there.

Even though it was on private property that wasn't managed for habitat, I think it probably survived there because of a lack of interference until it grew over. My main point is that threatened species rely on other species in a specific natural habitat. People just need to let grasses and wildflowers grow to maturity but we like exotic landscape plants, short lawns and hate "weeds".

Bumbles flourishing in Indiana. They love the sunflowers we plant every year.

well so far the flight of the bumblebee :-(
guess moore things will vanish the coming years....hmm humans????

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

I see them everywhere on my route in Indiana. They burrow into peoples porches.