Could an introduced bumble bee threaten Washington’s native bumbles?
Bumble bees are among the most loved bees and one of the few insects many people can easily identify. These flying puffs of fluff are also responsible for pollinating some of our favorite crops, especially fruit such as blueberries. They are generally not aggressive and can sometimes be held and even petted without stinging. And they are just downright cute.
But what if there was an introduced bumble bee that could potentially threaten our native bumble bees, some species of which are already facing challenges to survival?
That’s what an international group of researchers, including WSDA entomologists, are trying to learn about a newly introduced species of bumble bee — Bombus impatiens.
Also known as the common eastern bumble bee, Bombus impatiens is native to much of the eastern U.S. It was used for greenhouse pollination in Canada, but it escaped. It is now widely established in British Columbia and has also been discovered in northwestern counties in Washington.
Research is underway to learn about the impact on native bumble bees
In an attempt to determine the impact on native bumble bees, researchers reared native, yellow-faced bumble bee colonies (Bombus vosnesenskii) in captivity. This month, the colonies were placed in areas with lots of Bombus impatiens in British Columbia and areas with low numbers of Bombus impatiens in northwestern Washington.
The teams will be monitoring the colonies throughout the season to check the health of the bumble bees and ensure that the monitoring equipment is functioning. At the end of the season, the nests will be removed and inspected, and the data will be analyzed. Entomologists will try to determine whether competition from Bombus impatiens is having an impact on the native bees. For example, they will attempt to learn if native bees are producing colonies with fewer or smaller bumble bees.
It is a long-term project and analyzing the data will take time, but the research could provide important insight into whether this introduced bumble bee species could be invasive and threaten local native species.