Bumble Bee (Bombus lapidarius)

Unlike the Honey bee, in which the whole colony survives the winter, a bumble bee colony only lasts for a single season. This means that all the workers die in the autumn, so that only a few young mated queens survive and spend the winter in hibernation.

After honey bees, bumble bees are the second most important pollinators. They are irreplaceable for the pollination of trumpet shaped flowers, for which honey bees have too short a proboscis.

Description:
Bumble bees are big, fuzzy insects recognised easily by their robust shape and black and yellow colouration. The most common species are around 20mm in length or more. Like honey bees, bumble bees live in a colony, adults and larvae all being the offspring of one single queen. Bumble bees nests are much smaller than that of the honey bee, the nest containing only a few hundred bees is abandoned at the end of the summer. Bumble bees usually nest in the ground, sometimes in vacated mouse nests or among rubbish in huts and outbuildings, and also in wall cavities.

	Life cycle: In spring the queen awakes from hibernation and goes in search of a nest site, once a suitable location has been found she will line the existing cavity with dry grass or moss. She then starts to collect pollen and nectar to produce "beebread" which she stores to feed to her young. The queen will then produce her first brood of around 15-20 in number, these being workers (female).

Once reared they will then take on the duties of collecting food, rearing the young and enlarging the nest. The queen will continue to lay eggs throughout the summer. The actual adult size of each bee is dependent on the amount of food available during the larval stage (This being the reason why bumble bees seem to get bigger as the summer progresses.) In late summer, reproductive males and females are reared, once mating as occurred the males die along with the workers of the colony. Only the new fertilised queens survive, hibernating through winter in dry sheltered location.

Reason for control: Like the honey bee, the bumble bee is a very beneficial insect in our environment. Occasionally the location of the nesting site may mean some action has to be taken. Nests in the garden, outbuildings and cavity walls, may create constant traffic to and from the nest at the height of summer. Bumble bees normally only sting when provoked, or if they consider their colony to be under threat, however, caution should be taken at all times, bumble bees can sting, and when they do it can be extremely painful - take a tip from someone who has experienced it !

Control measures:
Bumble bees are not the easiest insects to control with insecticides, they are indeed very robust creatures and may survive a number of methods used to eradicate their presence. The bumble bees rather thick fur covering helps in protecting it from contact dusts, and may also help reduce the effectiveness of insecticidal sprays which are sometimes used to treat the nesting site.

A professional treatment is by far the safest and most effective way of controlling these insects. Insecticides used on nests should specific to the problem, and used only in accordance with the manufactures instructions. Care at all times should be employed!