How many bumble bees are left in the world

Several bumble bee species are rapidly declining and the status of others is unknown. Scientists report similar losses across Europe, South America and Asia.

Bumble bees face many threats, including habitat loss, pesticides, introduced diseases, climate change and competition from honey bees, says Sarina Jepsen, endangered species program director for the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and deputy chair of the IUCN Bumble Bee Specialist Group.

The good news is that all of us—particularly wildlife gardeners —can help bumble bees in and around our own homes. Here are some of the most important steps you can take :. A pollen-dusted bumble bee feeds on coneflower nectar in an Ohio backyard.

Photo by Josh Mayes. Active from early spring through late fall, bumble bees need access to a variety of nectar- and pollen-producing flowers as food for the adult bees as well as their larvae. Native plants are best because they have coevolved with native bees.

Plant a variety of native plants, some that bloom in the spring, some that bloom in the summer and some that bloom the fall, to provide three seasons of food for bumble bees and other pollinators. Most bumble bees nest in hives in underground holes made by larger animals, while some nest above ground in abandoned bird nests, grass tussocks or cavities such as hollow logs or spaces beneath rocks.

In gardens, they may also use compost piles or unoccupied birdhouses. If you do need to mow, do so with the mower blade set at the highest safe level and leave fallen leaves where they fall on your property. Pesticides like neonicotinoids harm the bumblebee's natural homing system, disrupt their communication strategies, and weaken their immune systems, reports Live Science.

According to the Independent , the largest remaining American bumblebee populations are located in the southern Great Plains and southeastern states. Elizabeth Gamillo is a daily correspondent for Smithsonian and a science journalist based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Post a Comment. The report builds on previous research that Kerr and other scientists have done with a massive dataset that combines information from more recent wildlife surveys with location data collected from specimens held in the archives of natural history museums. Because of the limitations to that approach much of the data is concentrated around sites in North America and Europe that were frequently visited by entomologists and insect collectors, for example other scientists say that this kind of data is suited to find correlations, rather than make conclusions.

Bombus terrestris on flower Photo courtesy of Jeremy Kerr. Because most insect spotters and collectors both past and present are disproportionately drawn to the flashiest specimens, the bumblebee is the rare pollinator that does consistently show up in natural history archives, and that attracts fans who use citizen science tools like Bumblebee Watch.

Trying to collect similar data on sweat bees, for example, would be much more difficult. And so we're able to have a huge amount of information through space and time on them to relate to climate extremes or habitat loss.

Bumblebees may be particularly vulnerable to the temperature extremes that climate change is causing, Kerr says. They didn't evolve under warm conditions. Kerr and Sorye are also studying the distribution of butterflies, another group of pollinators that are even better represented in natural history collections.

It could be that bumblebees are responding really badly to climate change as a reflection of their evolutionary inheritance. Even a few hot days a year can be deadly to bumblebee populations in the long term.

When temperatures rise to about degrees Fahrenheit, many bumblebee species, says Kerr, "basically kind of go punch drunk.

But, fewer and fewer of these bees may appear each spring thanks to numerous threats , including pesticides, destruction of habitat, the spread of pathogens—and now escalating temperatures, according to a study in Science. Many other wildlife species such as pikas and moose are shifting their historical ranges as best they can, typically north or upslope, to cope with the rapidly changing climate.

Bumble bees, however, are not occupying new regions in response to climate change, according to the study. This squeeze is occurring because bumble bee species are no longer surviving in the hottest parts of their ranges, but also are seemingly unable to shift to new, northern regions. A study in Science found that bumble bees had disappeared from the southernmost parts of their habitats in both North America and Europe. The study provided an explanation for this alarming contraction of bumble bee distribution across North America and Europe.

Hotter and more frequent extremes in temperature are the culprit, causing species extinctions across two continents, Soroye explained. Bees play a vital role in helping to pollinate local gardens and plants, helping our beloved community green spaces and parks to blossom in the springtime.

Unfortunately, bumble bees seemingly have nowhere left to go as temperatures spike to unbearable highs. You can help save our bumble bees while also enjoying some sunlight and fresh air at your own home. Creating a wildlife habitat garden in your yard or garden space—or even on your porch or balcony—will help provide food, water, cover, and a place to raise young for the disappearing bumble bees.