Bumblebees better than honeybees?
When it comes to certain areas of pollination they are. The faster wing beat of Bumblebees is more in tune with flowers that require vibrations around 400 Hz to release their pollen. These rapid vibrations are better for pollination of tomatoes, peppers, cranberries, blueberries and red clover etc. Bumblebees also work harder and at cooler temperatures than honey bees, and visit nectar-less flowers, which honey bees shun.
In the 1980s Bombiculture was developed around the tomato industry but of course what was good for business can be bad for bumblebees. Bombiculture led to transport and proliferation of bee diseases. Read the full article at The Scientist.
Bumblebees in Ireland.
Ireland has 101 native bee species
In addition to the honeybee, Ireland has 20 bumblebee species and 80 solitary bee species.
Theres an App for that! Andrew Fenner had developed a free app to help with bumblebee identification. Download the App
Rare bumblebee rediscovered after 88 years. Full details here.
Check out this great site National Biodiversity Data centre
Bumblebee Monitoring Scheme workshops. Some in August.
Join the Bumblebee Monitoring Scheme.
Leave a Reply