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Low resistance to high temperatures of cold-adapted bumblebee species unveils a global threat for arctic pollinators
Did you know?
Bumblebees are important for plant production as they pollinate many important crop plants.
Bumblebees do not provide commercial honey but produce nectar that they store for food whereas honeybees store honey at a surplus to survive winter.
Bumblebees are relatives to the honey-producing bees that are a major commercial industry.
Honeybees have their own language – the waggle dance
- Waggle dance video for older students The Waggle Dance
- Waggle dance for younger students Go Jetters Songs
Get Active!
Bumble Bee Fun
Bees are one of the most important species on the planet and without them, we would be living a very different life. Bees are known as a keystone species, or a species that other organisms depend on within their ecosystem. The reason that bees are so important for many species on Earth, is because they help to provide food! Bees pollinate our crops by going from flower to flower to collect nectar but they get covered by pollen and carry it to other flowers.
Pollination by bees worldwide has been valued to be billions of pounds with bees pollinating 70 different crops. We can see the importance of bees just when we step into a supermarket: if we didn't have bees we wouldn't have 30% of the food we see on the shelves including nuts, fruits and vegetables.
Pollination by bees worldwide has been valued to be billions of pounds with bees pollinating 70 different crops. We can see the importance of bees just when we step into a supermarket: if we didn't have bees we wouldn't have 30% of the food we see on the shelves including nuts, fruits and vegetables.
Photos from Pixabay.com
Bee populations are declining worldwide. Therefore, it is essential that we help to protect bees, not just for our food, but to protect many other species that would disappear if bees went extinct.
So what can we do to protect bees?
1
You can make or buy a bee hotel. Bee hotels are great places to encourage solitary bees to stay. Solitary bees can sometimes struggle to find nesting sites of their own and that is where a bee hotel comes in handy! To make your own bee hotel, check out The Wildlife Trust's guide here. If you're not feeling too creative, you can always buy a bee hotel.
2
You can help to feed tired bees struggling to make their way back to their nest by mixing sugar and water in a bowl, a spoon or a bottle cap and keeping outside. It is best to use a ratio of 1:1 sugar and water during spring and summer and a ratio of 2:1 sugar and water during winter and fall as they need more energy then. If the bowl that you are using is particularly large, remember to add bee rafts (feeding platforms) to it so that they don't drown. This could be a bottle cap or a piece of cardboard… bee creative!
3
Create your own waggle dance! Bees are very intelligent and communicate efficiently by a waggle dance, which is a series of movements that explains how to navigate. Can you create your own waggle dance to give directions (without speaking) to your friends?