Denise Ellsworth: Alright, so at this point i'm so happy to introduce heather home, who is an author and biologist she's based out of the twin cities, they actually didn't get a lot of snow last night, like we did here in the in the Midwest.
Denise Ellsworth: heather is a accomplished author, you may have one or more of her titles, on her most recent book on wasps really beautiful imagery and all of heather's book she's a.
Denise Ellsworth: An amazing photographer out there in the field, taking pictures of all kinds of insects and plants and her program you'll see is is also just so greatly enhanced by those images.
Denise Ellsworth: To bumbles on actually the two bumble images that three bumblebees on the screen in front of you are heather's images.
Denise Ellsworth: And I also see that heather has a new book coming out common native bees of Eastern Eastern United States, I was able to pre order that one yesterday so.
Denise Ellsworth: you'll definitely want to check out that link to find out more about heather's books.
Denise Ellsworth: A very accomplished presenter or researcher she's out there in the field, all the time she's very active on I naturalist.
Denise Ellsworth: And we're so happy to have her this morning to talk about bumblebees and the native plants that they enjoy so heather thanks for being with us i'll let you go ahead and share your screen.
Heather Holm: Thanks Denise.
Heather Holm: It is a pleasure to be here this morning and i'm sorry to hear about those of you that have had a lot of snow to shovel after this webinar.
Heather Holm: we've had really cold temps in Minnesota so not as much snow but.
Heather Holm: Anyway, as Denise said and it's i'm really thankful for being continued to and.
Heather Holm: Continuing to be invited to these webinars series, I really enjoy talking about these of course and today i'll be talking about probably one of the most charismatic group of bees, the bumblebees.
Heather Holm: My friend likes to call them flying Teddy bears which I think is a great description and so.
Heather Holm: Denise asked me to talk about the plants for bumblebees and I was trying to figure out how do I arrange this presentation to make it.
Heather Holm: intuitive, and this is sort of an overview of of the things that I will be covering but I decided that I would just.
Heather Holm: combine all of these things into a season all phonology so i'll talk a little bit at the beginning about why bumblebees are different from other native bees and introduce bees.
Heather Holm: And then sort of go through, starting in spring a nest initiation and then what is happening in the landscape with flowering plants.
Heather Holm: For the different castes and bumblebees so i'll i'll finish off by telling you a little bit more about some of the plants that I featured throughout the presentation I know some of you are tuning in from.
Heather Holm: The Pacific Northwest or the southwest so some of the plants that i'm featuring today may not be applicable to where you live so i've done a couple of slides at the end.
Heather Holm: That summarize sort of plant families key plant families for bumblebees and, hopefully, you can utilize that information and apply it to the region that you live in.
Heather Holm: So with that i'll get started bees, of course, many of you, I know are already be aficionados know a lot about bees and, of course.
Heather Holm: The general public really isn't aware of the beat diversity that we have in North America north of Mexico 3600 species and then worldwide just narrowing it down to bumblebees specifically.
Heather Holm: We have about 250 species and then in the United States 46 species of bumblebees and if you live East of the Mississippi river.
Heather Holm: 21 species and as Denise said i'm in Minnesota so we sort of straddle the eastern and western population, so we pick up a few more species.
Heather Holm: In the state of Minnesota we have anywhere from 23 and sometimes 24 if we get a real Western species traveling East so really it's depending on where you live, how many different types of bumblebees that you may see out foraging in your garden.
Heather Holm: And then of course bumblebees are sort of unique in our native be world they make up that sort of remaining 10% of native bees that don't have a solitary.
Heather Holm: lifestyle, and so there are social, but if you compare their nests, of course, to the most recognized be the honeybee, which is a highly social.
Heather Holm: species of be and they have very large nest anywhere from 10 to 40,000 bees living in managed hives and bumblebees, on the other hand, have very small.
Heather Holm: Social nest nest or anywhere from producing a few hundred bumblebees in a growing season to.
Heather Holm: Up to 700 if it's if it's a longer growing season, so the big difference between the the to the honeybees and bumblebees is that bumblebees have an annual colony so it's not perennial there they don't.
Heather Holm: live in a hive like honey bees do surviving on food stores and and therefore have a perennial colony the Bumblebee colony.
Heather Holm: Is annual so as I walk you through the Bumblebee lifecycle just keep that in mind, at the end of the growing season that colony will cease to exist, the inhabitants, the Queen that initiated that colony will will perish in addition to any remaining workers or males.
Heather Holm: The remaining 10% besides bumblebees some of our sweat bees also have varying degrees of sociality so some are do have truly social nets.
Heather Holm: Some semi social even communal where two females share an ass but provision their own brewed cells so it's a real sort of spectrum in in the native be world, but for the large majority of native bees.
Heather Holm: They have a solitariness so a single female be is establishing the nest and then forging in the landscape to collect pollen and nectar and bring those materials back to the nest to prepare inside of a brute sell to feed her larva.
Heather Holm: Alright, so why are bumblebees kind of fun and interesting and different and adorable you could say they really occur in many ECO regions but.
Heather Holm: Including the Arctic so and that is one thing that they have an advantage of being able to forage in cool temperatures and they can also thermal thermal regulate so they shiver their thoracic flight muscles.
Heather Holm: A similar mechanism mechanism that they use if they were to buzz pollinate flowers.
Heather Holm: But the larger sort of the greatest diversity of bumblebees occur in temperate region so if you're tuning in from the southwest you wouldn't you have high very high native be diversity, but not as many Bumblebee species as we would further north and in the temperate region.
Heather Holm: And then of course bumblebees are very effective and efficient pollinators of a lot of the different flowering plants that we.
Heather Holm: grow in our gardens or in natural landscapes and partly due to their size.
Heather Holm: Their ability to manipulate complex flower forms they have long tongue, so that Bumblebee squeezing itself into the blue phobia fire on this slide.
Heather Holm: that's quite an easy feat for that particular Bumblebee but smaller native bees would be expanding a lot more energy and struggling to get that flower open.
Heather Holm: In order to gain access to the next series of bumblebees also demonstrate floral constancy so when they leave their nest before before jurors are the workers.
Heather Holm: go out into the landscape, they are going to show us a little bit are quite a bit of fidelity to one particular plant species, so that really intern for the plant helps with pollination so they're they're moving around pollen from flower to flower of the same species.
Heather Holm: And then bumblebees often don't get credit for the significant amount of pollination, that they do.
Heather Holm: have many agricultural crops here in the US, and I just listed a few that are commonly pollinated by bumblebees and because they have a social mass with Queens.
Heather Holm: emerging from hibernation and early spring they their phonology of the different castes the queen's the workers.
Heather Holm: And the male's overlap with pretty much all of the different flowering agricultural flowering plants that require insect pollination so that's kind of what i've put on this slide to show.
Heather Holm: The hundred percent overlap and, of course, depending on where you're tuning in that phenology would be slightly shifted you may have apples blooming earlier than the first week of April, where you live.
Heather Holm: But the point is is that bumblebees have this hundred percent overlap of many of the fruit trees small berry crops.
Heather Holm: And then, what I call the summer vegetable crops, the tomatoes eggplants peppers so it's it's just another reason to attract and bring in.
Heather Holm: Different Bumblebee species, particularly if you have a home vegetable garden they're really helping with.
Heather Holm: A lot of pollination and one reason they are more effective and efficient pollinators of some of our agricultural crops such as blueberries here on the slide or tomatoes.
Heather Holm: is they, like many bees have the ability to both pollinate flowers or sonic eat flowers, so that symbol that I have i'll be utilizing.
Heather Holm: Throughout the presentation that represents the flower is sign and created by a Bumblebee and what is bolo buzz pollination well it's essentially the be safe shaking the pollen from the flower so in the case of blueberries blueberries have.
Heather Holm: inverted answers with small pores and so that pollen needs to be shaken and and dispersed out of the holes are pores.
Heather Holm: In order to be collected by a bee so that picture, you can see that's a queen Bumblebee.
Heather Holm: and her her activity coincides with the flowering of cultivated blueberries and she's signing creating that flower, you can see the pollen fine.
Heather Holm: and, similarly, the the Solon asia's crops, the plants in the nightshade family tomatoes peppers eggplants tomatoes, they are all plants that require as pollination so.
Heather Holm: One reason why bumblebees are more effective, because the introduced honeybee is unable to sonic eight flowers, so you can imagine, there are a number of advantages to both pollination.
Heather Holm: A single visit, while they vibrate that flower and extract a lot of pollen would be equivalent to a be visiting many different plants to collect a similar amount of pollen so they're really.
Heather Holm: Extracting a lot of pollen in one single visit that saves them a lot of time and energy expenditure and then of course you can just see from that picture that queen Bumblebee.
Heather Holm: is moving a lot of pollen around from flower to flower, which is helping obviously with pollination and fruits of these agricultural crops.
Heather Holm: And, as I mentioned earlier bumblebees have they're big they're probably one of our largest native bees, maybe, besides the large carpenter be and so just their size alone.
Heather Holm: provides them with strength, they can manipulate complex flower form so in early spring.
Heather Holm: As they're flying through woodlands, they may encounter dutchman's breaches that image on the left and the females have to pry open two sets of pedals.
Heather Holm: And then the nectarines are located at the top of the flower the breaches so they're long tongues enable them to extract the nectar from the flowers so small bees would have a really hard time.
Heather Holm: Doing that flower manipulation and opening of the pedals and so bond movies, are what I call really good multi taskers because they're able to push open and complex flowers.
Heather Holm: Access the flowers reproductive parts and extract either the pollen and nectar that they're.
Heather Holm: Seeking and then, of course, they are some of our longest tongue native bees, there are really sort of two groups, if you look at all of the Bumblebee species they're grouped either in.
Heather Holm: short or long term and the long we have more long term Bumblebee species, so there are tons can be.
Heather Holm: As long is 14 millimeters and so you can imagine, with complex flower forms, such as the examples on this slide long flower curl is where the neck trees are pretty hard to reach some.
Heather Holm: medium and small native bees would have a very difficult time because their tongue simply aren't as long as bumblebees so bumblebees can.
Heather Holm: really have a broad spectrum of different flowering plants that they're able to access nectar from because of their long tones.
Heather Holm: So of course bumblebees have a similar diet other native bees, they are vegetarian and their diet is comprised of resources produced by flowering plants.
Heather Holm: pollen is is providing them with their with his kind of their meat their protein and fats and then nectar their carbohydrates and amino acids so it's the combination of the two floral resources that are.
Heather Holm: collected and fed to offspring, now the females are actively out visiting flowering plants to collect pollen, whereas the males are simply nectar feeding it's pretty uncommon or unusual for.
Heather Holm: A Bumblebee to be consuming pollen while visiting flowers, but it's not uncommon for some of our solitary native be females will be actually consuming pollen while they visit flowers, but the visits by bumblebees are usually for.
Heather Holm: Either feeding on nectar collecting nectar or collecting pollen and plant preferences so often bumblebees get called generalists and you can think of them as being.
Heather Holm: generalists at the genius level so collectively the 46 species in the US with their long phenology of their less their nesting colony cycle.
Heather Holm: You can imagine, I showed you just how they overlap with different agricultural crops, but the colony itself and all the forging cast.
Heather Holm: overlap with many different flowering plants in the landscape, but even given that at the species level.
Heather Holm: They do show some plant preferences so they're not necessarily generalist at the species level and those preferences are obviously guided by.
Heather Holm: Their seasonality, where they are their geographic range and then some of those physical traits that I talked about their their tongue length and their overall size and an ability to access and manipulate different flowers.
Heather Holm: So I just wanted to touch on different ways that nature bees collect pollen and how that is different from bumblebees, so this is a slide of.
Heather Holm: three different types of solitary native bees, or in the case of the green sweat be.
Heather Holm: She she has communally but anyway, we have six families have bees in North America, and one of those families, the leaf cutter be.
Heather Holm: The females collect porn on the bottom of their abdomen, so this is something to look for and I know probably all of you tuning in our what you would call the watchers.
Heather Holm: And so, if you see a female with the hair is on the bottom of her admin covered in Poland, Greens and it's likely a female in that family.
Heather Holm: Most native bees have hairs of varying lengths so that like that metallic green sweat be.
Heather Holm: As she forages on flowers she'll groom the pollen to those hairs on her hind leg sometimes the pollen adheres to the side of the thorax or the edge of the abdomen and that can confuse people sometimes.
Heather Holm: thinking that because there's pollen on the abdomen It may be a be in the leaf cutter be family.
Heather Holm: And then of course nature always has exceptions to the rule, so the master yellow face be which looks like a very tiny mason wasp.
Heather Holm: And you can see the female really doesn't have any external hairs so she instead collects pollen by ingesting it.
Heather Holm: In addition to nectar and then storing it in her prop so that's how most native bees collect fallen by bumblebees and, in addition to honeybees.
Heather Holm: are really the only two b's that you would see out foraging in the landscape that have pollen baskets or Corbett and they it is essentially.
Heather Holm: An enlarged tibia on their hind leg, you can see the blow up here on the slide so that tibia is flared it has a concave.
Heather Holm: Smooth indentation where pollen is packed and then it's surrounded by stiff bristly hairs to help hold that pollen so the worker on the Left image, you can see her particularly are.
Heather Holm: loaded down with pollen bumblebees will often combined nectar with the pollen as they grew and pack it on their Kabila so that's why it often looks shiny.
Heather Holm: And a little bit different consistency like compared to that dry pollen grains that I showed you on the previous slide with the solitary native bees.
Heather Holm: And then another exception to the rule so there's a sub genus of bumble bees that are cuckoo bumblebees and they are.
Heather Holm: bumblebees that invade the nest of another type of Bumblebee.
Heather Holm: drive out the Queen and then take over laying eggs and forcing the workers to rear her offspring so cuckoo bumblebees lack pollen basket, so you can see where my arrow is pointing this is a lemon cuckoo Bumblebee.
Heather Holm: And because she doesn't have any role or need to collect pollen she's essentially just going into an ass driving out or killing the Queen.
Heather Holm: and making the workers forge for pollen in the landscape so cuckoo bumblebees just have to cast the the Queens and or the females a blank females, and then they produce males and new Queens so they don't have workers, because the the host become the workers.
Heather Holm: All right, these are some terms that I just sort of came up with to give you a sense of what to look for if you're observing a forging Bumblebee visiting flowers.
Heather Holm: So if they're not have scientific terms, but I thought they'd be kind of fun and memorable to help you.
Heather Holm: You know, has specific things to look for a while you're watching a Bumblebee visit a flower, and what we really need citizen scientists to help with is to help parse out.
Heather Holm: When a Bumblebee visits a flowering plant is it actively collecting pollen or is it visiting that flowering plant to consume or collect nectar so buzz pollination, as I mentioned, is is a very.
Heather Holm: useful tool for pollinating some of our agricultural crops, but out in the flowering landscape in the natural world we have many different flowering plants that.
Heather Holm: bumblebees like the buzz pollinate so in some in many cases, if the flowering plant is nectar list and just offering pollen, then the those flowering plants will be buzz pollinated.
Heather Holm: And in addition to the other flowering plants that I mentioned earlier plants with.
Heather Holm: answers that have pores are inverted answers with pores are about so I call the buzz pollination, the crunches because that you can see that picture of a worker Bumblebee visiting firing spider Ward they actually gather themselves around the pollen producing answers.
Heather Holm: And then crunch over them are sort of fold themselves, and then they vibrate their thoracic site flight muscles to vibrate the pollen so you can actually see this them doing this, but it's quite fast and quick.
Heather Holm: i'll talk about some other plans during the presentation to look for buzz pollination, the other sort of nectar or excuse me.
Heather Holm: pollen collection technique, I often see bumblebees is what I call the rapid Passover, so this is a queen Bumblebee approaching a flowering plant that is offering pollen and she will continue to have her wings.
Heather Holm: Beating and be passing over in a very fast manner over tops of the flowers to collect pollen and then later glue groom that pollen so another example would be.
Heather Holm: button Bush those white spherical flowers you'll see bumblebees just quite literally buzzing around that spherical flower very, very quickly and it's just a really fast way for them to collect pollen.
Heather Holm: there's also instances where you may think of Bumblebee is just sipping on nectar, but in fact that they may be.
Heather Holm: multitasking and sipping on nectar while they simultaneously collect pollen and these images are a little fuzzy because I pulled them from a video that I took.
Heather Holm: This is a brown belt and Bumblebee visiting blue back to Asia, so you can see, she has her head inserted into the flowers she's sipping on nectar.
Heather Holm: But what she's doing with her mid legs is pushing down the lower keel pedals of that P shape flower.
Heather Holm: And then she's moving her hind legs where her particularly occurred in sort of a circular motion dragging them over the exposed reproductive parts, the answers that she's exposed while she's pushing down the flower, so this is more of a.
Heather Holm: sort of stable or not fast moving.
Heather Holm: Activity so it's easier to see this versus that rapid Passover that I talked about on the previous slide.
Heather Holm: And then, of course, if bumblebees are visiting flowering plants to feed or collect nectar then they would obviously be probing the flower with their tongue.
Heather Holm: searching for the nectarines one thing to look for as any type of be sort of imbibed the nectar their abdomen often pulsates so I can sort of spot that from a distance, where.
Heather Holm: Even if it's a small native be I know that they're nectarine versus collecting pollen because I can see that their abdomen is pulsating wilder probing the flower with their their time.
Heather Holm: Alright, so just to talk about where bumblebees occur in the landscape, through the growing season, and this is sort of based upon.
Heather Holm: Mid western and eastern type landscapes with woodlands and various patchy habitats, but.
Heather Holm: woodlands play a really critical role for not only hibernation sites for bumblebees but also for spring foraging so some of those first.
Heather Holm: blooming plants in the woodlands before the tree leaves come out are critical nectar plans for emerging Queens.
Heather Holm: In addition to wetland areas so here in Minnesota the first flowering plant to bloom are willows so they can provide some of the first nectar sources for bumblebees and then, as we after nest establishment occurs.
Heather Holm: foraging sort of changes and you'll find bumblebees out in more sunny area are areas where there's a larger diversity of flowering plants, so that can include places such as.
Heather Holm: prairies or meadows or our home gardens, is where we really start to see bumblebees in the summer and autumn and i'll talk a little bit more about.
Heather Holm: The you know when you see population is and why, as we go through the life cycle so obviously because of their colony cycle on babies need.
Heather Holm: A new nutritious food sources, ideally, a diversity of native flowering plants from early spring from the point in time, those Queens come out of hibernation.
Heather Holm: all the way through into fall and so thinking about how you can modify your garden that you may have and ensuring that you have.
Heather Holm: A continuous supply a flowering plants and don't forget about what do you plan so we'll be talking.
Heather Holm: A little bit about what we plan says we go through the seasonal phenology but in the spring, particularly flowering trees and shrubs can play a really critical role in helping to fill in that that firing phonology.
Heather Holm: So let's walk through a seasonal guide to the Bumblebee lifecycle and some of the native flowering plants that they enjoy visiting.
Heather Holm: And I just want to mention on each of the slides I will have either a either or a P and N n indicated for each flowering plant so and our indicates.
Heather Holm: That the bumblebees visit that firing plan for nectar to either collector consume it P, they will visit that flowering plant to collect pollen.
Heather Holm: And then, as I mentioned earlier, my little buzz pollinated symbol, meaning the bumblebees will buzz pollinate that flower, so this those symbols just represent.
Heather Holm: bumblebees so the example I have here is wild Bergman and bumblebees use that utilize that plant for an actor, but keep in mind other native bees.
Heather Holm: Some of our smaller solitary bees utilize a plant, such as wild burger month for Poland collection, so those symbols just reflect.
Heather Holm: What bumblebees are using those particular plants as we go through the seasons, so, as I mentioned bumblebees have an annual colony.
Heather Holm: The queen's lived the longest anywhere from 11 to 13 months because they are produced in the colony either late summer or fall and then they.
Heather Holm: hibernate for the winter and then establish their own colony in the spring, so this is where.
Heather Holm: early spring is a really critical time period and, as I mentioned something, such as pussy willow is.
Heather Holm: Basically, the first firing plan to bloom I usually go to the my local wetland and check out the willows in early spring and i'll often see some of the earlier emerging on will be species such as this to spot a Bumblebee and find some new Queens out.
Heather Holm: sipping on nectar so those Queens have hibernated for many months, just think of our snowy conditions for many of you tuning in today there they've taught themselves into a shallow borough in the ground.
Heather Holm: And they've basically are burning through fat stores that they built the previous fall, so they come out of hibernation.
Heather Holm: Pretty hungry and exhausted, and this is one of the reasons why, having flowering plants in early spring is really critical.
Heather Holm: Just to get the queen's going and fueled so that she can start her nest searching activities, so if you're wandering through the woodlands and early spring looking for some of those first.
Heather Holm: flowering plants blooming such as dutchman's breeches that's where you may find new Queens nest searching and searching behavior is.
Heather Holm: They fly low to the ground, often kind of back and forth, and then, when they find something that looks like a good opportunity to establish a nest could be an abandoned road in whole or some sort of cavity behind a rock.
Heather Holm: The queen's will go in, they may go in for several minutes and then they'll decide whether or not.
Heather Holm: that's an ideal place to NASA I call it the Cinderella period because they can be really, really picky.
Heather Holm: Finding the right place to nest, so this is where these early spring nectar sources of woodland firing plants just simply are providing them fuel, while they're doing their nest searching.
Heather Holm: And as as an in addition to those perennials some of the early firing woody plants such as well, oh that I mentioned earlier.
Heather Holm: The the trueness any particularly the different species of plums they are offering nectar first and that often coincides with nest searching activities for some of the leader.
Heather Holm: bumblebees feces and then the queen's once they have established, and this will return to some of the prettiness to collect poem that rapid Passover.
Heather Holm: That I talked about earlier but thinking about some shrubs that we think of our nuisances like prickly ash very thorny shrub that.
Heather Holm: Can invade more grassland and metal habitats well that's a particular plant native plant that blooms early and can provide some additional forage to to queen bumblebees.
Heather Holm: So she takes takes about anywhere from seven to 10 days doing this nest searching activity and it's really dependent on where you live, and the different species that occur, where you are.
Heather Holm: But a lot of the intemperate regions, the Bumblebee nests are either established sort of at ground level under heavy debris.
Heather Holm: So that two examples here, this is a little spot in my neighborhood that I discovered to nest within five feet of each other.
Heather Holm: And one was at the end of that sort of tucked under the end of that rotting log and the second was under the heavy layers of plant debris and leaf litter so some species nest at ground level with those natural insulating materials.
Heather Holm: Around the nest some will establish an s below ground in abandoned wrote in holes and then less often ness could be established above ground i've seen.
Heather Holm: Queens nest searching in tree cavities and some people often report ness occurring in abandoned ness bird nest boxes last summer I also found a nest.
Heather Holm: In a hole in a log lying on the ground, which to me was a little surprising, you can see the dry wood shavings coming out of that hole.
Heather Holm: And it's still a mystery to me whether the workers or the Queen we're actually expanding the cavity and that dry log.
Heather Holm: or another animal had done so before the Queen establish the nest in the log so some a lot in some for some species wooded habitats can be very attractive.
Heather Holm: bumblebees are often looking for abandoned most nervous so they're using their olfactory senses smell, of course, to find a band and mouse mouse, in order to establish their nest.
Heather Holm: Alright, so the Queen has found finally picked a spot to nest and now she is still the soul for injure until she produces her.
Heather Holm: First brood of workers, and this is still this this early spring time frame is still a really precarious time because the Queen is taking all otter risks to go back out into the landscape.
Heather Holm: to collect start collecting pollen to bring back to the nest so that she can start her egg laying the world and firing plants continue to play a role in providing.
Heather Holm: Different nutritional resources that she needs, but she started she switches from the nectar feeding initially to really seeking out pollen producing plants so something that we wouldn't think of as an important plant.
Heather Holm: or native violence, for example, that plant is utilized by bumblebees for both pollen and nectar and amazingly the queen's often like to bust pollinate the flowers, so you really have to get down low to the ground, next to the violence to to hear those Queens sonic eating the flowers.
Heather Holm: And in addition that's when some of the first trees start to bloom so if you're in the eastern us or southern Ontario red Bud wouldn't begin blooming before the leaves come out.
Heather Holm: And it belongs to the p family so many of the flowering plants in the p family provide good pollen sources for bumblebees and we've already talked about blueberries but the air acacias plants.
Heather Holm: If you live in sandy habitats, probably have many more different irrigation plants that would require buzz pollination that queen bumblebees would be collecting pollen from.
Heather Holm: Alright, so let's take a look inside the nest the Queen has established the nest she's gone out to find flowering plants that are producing pollen.
Heather Holm: she's collecting that pollen on her Corbett koolaid bringing it back to the nest and.
Heather Holm: Making a large pollen ball, so that initial palumbo that she creates she lays multiple eggs on top of the poem ball.
Heather Holm: Because these necessary established in early spring with fluctuating temperatures those initial eggs often are incubated.
Heather Holm: by the Queen she'll sit on talk with the pollen ball and eggs, the pollen balls often covered with a wax coding so similar to honey bees having the ability to produce a wax like substance.
Heather Holm: bumblebees can, as well the wax is secreted from between their abdominal segments, and they use that wax to make nectar pots, which you can see in this image so they're just sort of these.
Heather Holm: haphazard different size little parts and when she's out foraging in the landscape collecting pollen she's also ingesting nectar.
Heather Holm: storing it in her crop and then, when she returns she'll regurgitate that nectar into a nectar pot so that's kind of a short term food store for her and later on for workers.
Heather Holm: If she gets stuck in a nest and with you know, several days of rain and don't she wouldn't have forging conditions to go out in the landscape she's got a little supply of food.
Heather Holm: To weather that.
Heather Holm: Alright, so the first brood of.
Heather Holm: or first offspring that she produces all of those eggs that are initially laid on the pollen ball are female and bees and other time, and after I have this.
Heather Holm: really interesting sex determination called flow deploy it, and so, if the females lay fertilized eggs, they produce female offspring, so those.
Heather Holm: When she has made the previous fall with one male she stores that sperm and then while she's laying her eggs, she fertilizes them so her first brood are typically all female.
Heather Holm: and her daughters are workers are now a switch has occurred, where once they become adults, they can go out and start foraging in the landscape.
Heather Holm: For pollinate nectar so that the Queen can remain safely in the nest So what do plants are still in play plants such as bladder not dog would choke Barry.
Heather Holm: wafer ashen rhododendron you're going to see either Queens or workers visiting Those sort of spring flowering, what do you plan and then as.
Heather Holm: The woodland an ephemeral the native spring flowering shrubs finished the blooming then really the activity shifts into more open.
Heather Holm: sunny habitats meadows prairies home gardens and it's the this is, you know in where I live in Minnesota this would be early in June and I always find that to.
Heather Holm: difficult time, a year to have an adequate supply of flowering plants because we had that bustos or burst of spring flowering plants and then there's often a low before the summer blooming plants come into play so.
Heather Holm: trying to find plants that fill those lows if you want to call it, that is really important, and these are just some examples, but not obviously applicable for.
Heather Holm: Everybody tuning in the midwestern prairies species prairie smoke is in the Rose family and that's a really fun flowering plant that you'll find either queen or worker bumblebees buzz pollinating.
Heather Holm: Alright, so the workers are foraging and after late spring you no longer would typically see Queens out in the landscape they're going to remain safely in the nest continuing to do all the egg laying with the workers, helping them rear.
Heather Holm: More offspring so from a gardening perspective, once we get into late spring early summer, this is where we really start to see the bumblebees increase in numbers in our gardens.
Heather Holm: And these are just some different early spring late spring early summer flowering plants, I mentioned earlier spider word is a nectar list plant so that's a plant that is solely.
Heather Holm: utilized for it's pulling resources and it's also buzz colonnaded the various species of bacteria so there's.
Heather Holm: depending on where you live there's should be at least one species in the eastern us.
Heather Holm: A very good pollen source for bumblebees milk weeds are an example of a plant that only offer nectar to visiting insects, the pollen is packaged into sticky sex called alinea so any any Bumblebee or other flower visiting insect visiting a milk we plant would be just seeking out nectar.
Heather Holm: Other perennials so sometimes there's a few flower remaining flowering plants that are occurring in shady conditions.
Heather Holm: Some of our early blooming fig wart species are really fun and interesting plants and attract a number of different flower visiting insects for for their nectar.
Heather Holm: One of the one of the plants, I find really unusual the metal roofs in the genius that lick select drum that they're actually separate male and female plants.
Heather Holm: Wind pollinated but many different types of native bees will visit the male plants to collect the pollen so that's an image of a worker Bumblebee visiting tall metal roof.
Heather Holm: The men, so this is where some of the earlier mints start to bloom so plants in the mint family lamia ACTA.
Heather Holm: I just started planting a number of wood minutes and then gina spliff lilia in my garden, and again I really like that plant, because it fills that that law that I talked about between spring and summer blooming plants now most or all mints.
Heather Holm: In that family are primarily nectar sources for bumblebees so that's something to keep in mind as well, like, I talked about earlier with the wild bergamot.
Heather Holm: native roses so forget about the double flowered hybrid tea and all those other fancy roses, if you can find just a straight species of one ones, have a native rose that.
Heather Holm: Is native to your area, those are excellent pollen sources for bumblebees and they have that open flower form single pedals.
Heather Holm: Big world of stamens and answers in the Center, and that is a really fun plant that you'll find many different native bees buzz pollinating for for many years ago I planted some.
Heather Holm: native roses in a restoration and when I visit that site it often go in the afternoon and I was really perplexed, I thought.
Heather Holm: Why aren't there any pollinators visiting the native rose and I realized that all of that pollen extraction occurs in in the morning, so by about 1030 or 11am.
Heather Holm: All of the native bees have extracted all the pollen that the flowers have produced for that day so sometimes you need to be an early riser to see some of these things happening in the landscape.
Heather Holm: Alright, so summer, this is where we we shift to really primarily.
Heather Holm: flowering annuals and perennials in our landscapes and we have many things to choose from in our gardens.
Heather Holm: And to enhance different flower colors flower forms for not only bumblebees but many other native species purple prairie clover and white prairie clover are in the p family so that's an excellent plan, if you live in the Midwest.
Heather Holm: To add to your garden, if you have sandy conditions that that pollen is really sought after by particular bumblebees species.
Heather Holm: plants in the high paragon genus are also nectar list so that's strictly a pollen plant for bumblebees another one that gets buzz colonnaded so you can start to see patterns in the flower forums, if you compare that high para con photo with the Rose photo so the open sort of disc.
Heather Holm: shaped form that big world of answers and statements in the middle, can help you indicate that that is a nectar list plan.
Heather Holm: The verb things, including plants in the verbena genus are primarily nectar sources for bumblebees and the nectar is very nutritious high in sugar concentrations so helping those workers continue their their activities of collecting pollen.
Heather Holm: So the the Queen has done continued egg laying and the workers help her continue to rear more offspring.
Heather Holm: And sometime in summer she switches to laying unfertilized eggs, so that starts the production of male bumblebees, this is a particular Bumblebee species, not all male Bumblebee species.
Heather Holm: Established territories, this is a black and gold Bumblebee and you can see many of the male Bumblebee species have large eyes so with the reason is they really spend almost all of their time.
Heather Holm: looking for a new female or new Queen and there, he is perched on a top tall flower that he is found in a prairie.
Heather Holm: That is his territory he's not only looking for new Queens to mate with but he's also chasing off any other males and, in some cases.
Heather Holm: Any dragon flies are birds that enter his territory, so if you find some little territorial male territories it's really fun to visit while they're doing their nest searching activity.
Heather Holm: I found a spot last summer in a unrestored short grass prairie that had about 15 different males scattered throughout a two acre prairie that all had set up their own little space there to.
Heather Holm: to fend for for their female that they may find.
Heather Holm: Alright, so males are produced and, as I mentioned at the beginning, they are nectar feeding so that's where you may see some differences in.
Heather Holm: What plants flowering plants male versus female or worker bumblebees are visiting so males are going to be drawn to plants such as milk weeds that are just offering nutritious nectar.
Heather Holm: Whereas females are going to continue looking for Poland producing plants to bring back more pollen to the nest so the wild Center.
Heather Holm: is another fun plant to utilize if it's native to your area it's in the p family does produces pollen so it's a necklace plan, and that is another fun, one that one will be loved about pollinate.
Heather Holm: And then there are a few what he plant native what he plans to bloom in the summer, so I just thought i'd feature a few on this slide.
Heather Holm: If you're in the Midwest or in prairie areas lead plant is a excellent plant to plant for not only bumblebees, but a number of.
Heather Holm: Our solitary need a visa specialize on plants in the genus and morfa and, as I mentioned earlier button Bush.
Heather Holm: That rapid fire pollen collection that you may see a Bumblebee collecting the pollen and you can see how those answers really protrude from the flower and that really helps facilitate that rapid spinning around on that spherical flower form for pollen collection.
Heather Holm: So the Queen.
Heather Holm: switches back to laying fertilized eggs and those will be destined to be new Queens and the new Queens.
Heather Holm: Leave the nest shortly after the males are produced in the colony now they spend about three days inside of the nest after they eat clothes just hanging out getting their exoskeleton to finish developing and hardening.
Heather Holm: At that point in time and it's not well known, they may be actually feeding on a little bit of pollen in inside of the nes.
Heather Holm: But there are really no observations of these new Queens while they go out and forage in the landscape consuming pollen so their primary way to.
Heather Holm: build the fat stores that I mentioned to survive hibernation is through feeding on plants that are very have very good.
Heather Holm: Good quality nectar so they they spend about anywhere from seven to 12 days practicing these foraging flights going out into the landscape.
Heather Holm: feeding on nectar then returning to their Natal nest and while they're out is when the male's find them to meet with them.
Heather Holm: So this pre hibernation feeding is really, really important, particularly from the perspective of how do we help bumblebees in the landscape.
Heather Holm: And if they have nutritional stress, you can imagine that will directly impact their.
Heather Holm: The whether or not they will survive their hibernation and build enough fat stores, so they really need nutritional sources and.
Heather Holm: Some of the flowering plants, particularly ones that are high in sugar concentration, are very important, so I just put some examples on this slide asters blazing stars golden rods milk lead sunflowers wild bergamot.
Heather Holm: ironwood and tick seen so many of those belong to the astor family, which makes sense because those plants.
Heather Holm: tend to dominate the the flowering world in late summer and autumn, so this is a picture of a male who has found a female a new Queen, while she's out foraging.
Heather Holm: And he is meeting with her, so they typically may only with one male and after meeting and after feeding on.
Heather Holm: An adequate supply of nectar and building those fat stores through hormonal and other physiological changes.
Heather Holm: Basically, a switch is is switched and then the Queen knows that she is ready to go and disperse and search for a place to hibernate.
Heather Holm: But in and you'll still see going back to the workers they're still working hard, even in late summer.
Heather Holm: They may be producing some of the last new Queens in the colony, so there are still some flowering plants that blooming late summer that you'll find workers, in addition to males visiting in the in their last days some more flowering plants that you may find new Queens.
Heather Holm: Visiting to sit by nectar in addition to the males who are just their life, their life is about to end, unfortunately, and people often ask me.
Heather Holm: What are all the bumblebees out sitting on the flowers overnight and in late summer and autumn and.
Heather Holm: Those are the males they they don't return to the nest ones they're produced and leave us as adults, so they spend their days looking for nectar sources and.
Heather Holm: Looking for females, so their life is very short and as we get colder temperatures and flowering plants are not producing as many resources as they were in mid summer.
Heather Holm: that's when the colony starts to slow down in decline, the Queen may die at this point, and so it's sort of a race with the remaining workers and males to continue on.
Heather Holm: With their foraging but really not for any specific effort, because the colony is basically done by that point so by fall.
Heather Holm: Even though we have golden rods and asteroids and all these other wonderful flowering plants so they're primarily providing nectar for male bumblebees, but these.
Heather Holm: plants that I have on this slide are extremely important for many of our solitary native bees that are.
Heather Holm: Active in late summer and early autumn, so we have a number of specialists of golden rods and asters and sunflowers that really rely on these what I call the fall book and plants so even though they're not.
Heather Holm: as important for bumblebees they are really important for other types of native bees.
Heather Holm: Alright, so the Queens the new Queens have built up their fat stores and, in some cases, some species may disperse.
Heather Holm: A fair distance but it's also not unusual for them to not disperse very far at all, this is a picture that I took from a video that I took last fall and alien Evans from the University of Minnesota.
Heather Holm: In touch touch with me and she said that they had found a.
Heather Holm: hibernation aggregation in the backyard of a homeowner's house, so I went over and Sure enough, the the queen's were busy excavating they're shallow hibernation burrows.
Heather Holm: So this is really the only time that bumblebees would do any kind of excavation unlike solitary female bees that are ground nesting they're doing.
Heather Holm: An enormous amount of excavation to to create their nesting nest structure below ground but, really, this is the only time that the queen's are doing any kind of.
Heather Holm: digging, so this is a common Eastern phone will be new queen starting to dig her borough and the borough's are quite shallow just a couple of inches deep.
Heather Holm: And what's what is interesting about the common Eastern bumblebees many new Queens will excavate their boroughs in close proximity, so this is a picture each of those Bamboo steaks represent.
Heather Holm: excavated borough a partially excavated bro sometimes they get abandoned but elaine had been monitoring.
Heather Holm: The excavation activity, so this is the back of the Homeowners garage the things stack that you see in the back of this picture.
Heather Holm: The nest nest that these Queens were produced from was actually located underneath that garage so within 10 to 15 feet of these.
Heather Holm: aggregate aggregation boroughs so these these new Queens didn't fly very far at all to prepare for their hibernation and thankfully the homeowner contacted the university, so that they had the correct information to know not to disturb these overwintering Queens.
Heather Holm: So nutritional stress is one of the major factors that is impacting bumblebees, but of course it's often a lot of different interacting factors so.
Heather Holm: pesticide use introduced pathogens from commercial bumblebees in addition to honey bees can impact bumble bee populations, but of course just our flower list landscapes are highly fragmented habitat.
Heather Holm: Climate change all of these things will be causing nutritional stress for bumblebees So hopefully i've given you a lot of ideas about how to help bumblebees and specific flowering plants that they they like.
Heather Holm: And, of course, going back to that concept of this applies for all native bees having that.
Heather Holm: Continuous succession of flowering plants, and that includes the woody plants, the trees and shrubs in addition to perennials and now you have a better understanding of.
Heather Holm: Not all plants are providing both resources for a foraging be such as a Bumblebee so summer good pollen plants and some are good nectar plants, so you need a nice balance and.
Heather Holm: As I mentioned at the beginning, for those of you that are tuning in and all the plants, I showed today don't apply to where you live, I tried to sort of pull out.
Heather Holm: Some of the predominant plant families and hopefully they apply to where you live, but the Rose family, the p family and the heath or.
Heather Holm: Air acacias family are really critical pollen sources for bumblebees in addition to the nightshade and asked her family, so not all asked her.
Heather Holm: flowering plants are pollen sources, many of them are nectar sources for bumblebees, but I just listed a few that bumblebees are seeking out pollen and then, if we look at that, from the point of view of what are the primary nectar plans for bumblebees.
Heather Holm: mint family is very predominant so any any flowering plant that belongs to the mint family bumblebees love as an actor source, in addition to the astor's that I talked about all of those funding prairie and savannah plants.
Heather Holm: Black eyed susan's you name it that typical astor flower form and then many p.
Heather Holm: P plants do produce nectar I highlighted some that were nectar list, but they that that family also is a good source of nectar for.
Heather Holm: bumblebees and I threw in one more family there that includes the turtle heads and penstemons because those are two pretty predominant plants that bumblebees utilize.
Heather Holm: So thanks so much for tuning in this is the Bumblebee high five i'm sure many of you have heard about it, so if you if you pet a male Bumblebee he raises his.
Heather Holm: Mid leg up in protest, so I thought that would be a fun image to finish off this presentation and I look forward to answering any questions about plants for bumblebees so thanks.
Denise Ellsworth: Great Thank you heather so wonderful and you answered lots of our questions in.
Denise Ellsworth: The Q amp a box, as you as you summarize at the end, so I really appreciate that, and you know for our participants.
Denise Ellsworth: If you do a screenshot or go back and watch the video and do a screenshot, then you can have those lists there right on your computer, so we have something close to 300 questions we definitely won't.
Denise Ellsworth: get to all of them.
Denise Ellsworth: But I tried to sort of put them into groups heather so first of all, there were a lot of questions about robbing and also kind of the differences between.
Denise Ellsworth: Sorry i'm going to back up and just say folks if you need to leave because we're on the hour i'm sure heather would appreciate it Thank you in the chat box.
Denise Ellsworth: will keep recording so the Q amp a portion will be on the recording so you can come back so don't feel bad if you have to hop out thanks for coming, so there were questions about how do I tell a carpenter be from a bumble me so maybe, just a quick recap about that and then what is robbing.
Heather Holm: Okay, so Carver bees typically have a shiny black abdomen that's relatively hairless they also have a larger head and larger compound eyes.
Heather Holm: And so that's usually what I look for is the hairiness and bumblebees will have all of their abdominal segments covered with.
Heather Holm: Various hairs colors of hair so look for that shiny black abdomen and sort of large broad shoulders and big head of the conference Derby.
Heather Holm: nectar robbing occurs in the short term bumblebees as well as the cart large carpenter beer famous nectar robbers so they.
Heather Holm: will use their mandibles to tool hole at the bottom of a flower corolla and that then becomes a place that they can insert their tongue to reach the factory, so they don't legitimately.
Heather Holm: visit the flower because their tongues are not long enough to reach those factories through the opening of the flower girl.
Denise Ellsworth: let's see you mentioned rose as an example of a flower that will replenish its resource and there were several questions about how how the plants do that what kind of cycle, do they have or how did they replenish the nectar or the pollen what's the schedule like.
Heather Holm: yeah it's really plant specific so wild burger mind is a an example of a plant that it's getting enough moisture in sunlight for photosynthesis and.
Heather Holm: That that plant will continuously replenish it's nectar during the day so that's why you'll see foraging on wow burcombe on from early morning, all the way to dusk.
Heather Holm: But then other plants are serving up their full supply of nectar in the morning, the replenishment has happened overnight, and then, if the frequency of.
Heather Holm: flower visiting insects extracting that nectar as soon as the nectar stores are depleted that plant will will no longer be offering nectar until it replenishes overnight so that's more of a.
Heather Holm: 24 hour cycle, I guess you would call it so it's very plant specific.
Heather Holm: I think not everybody I don't think there's you know information on every single flowering plant in its cycles so that's another way that people and citizen scientists can help if they're super observant they they may be able to figure that out.
Denise Ellsworth: Great thanks, so I will put a plug in for pollinators of native plants heather's wonderful book if you don't have this on your bookshelf you need it it's.
Denise Ellsworth: I just pulled a one page, for example, the horse surveying the verbena.
Denise Ellsworth: Lots of great pictures all the different kinds of pollinators who are visiting good plants information when it's blooming what its range is so.
Denise Ellsworth: Many of the questions in the chat or specific about different native plants so i'll just point that out to you as a great resource to to answer some of those plant questions.
Denise Ellsworth: heather what kind of foraging range do bumblebees have.
Heather Holm: yeah so they they can usually wouldn't go farther than a mile so you think about that energy expenditure, I talked about they don't want to burn all the calories they've consumed just looking for.
Heather Holm: floral resources so ideally they're going to not go too far from the nest if there is an abundant amount of flowering plants.
Heather Holm: Some research has indicated that they can find the nest if they're transported seven or eight miles away.
Heather Holm: But that would seem pretty unusual for bumblebees to naturally forge those distances, so I would think up to a mile is typical but that's also something that's.
Heather Holm: particularly hard to quantify, so I think you may know more Denise a more recent studies, but i'm sure there's little transponders or something that have been utilized to answer that question.
Denise Ellsworth: Right, I think we need more engineers who can work on that very small scale to get those transponders to.
hang on to the Ba.
Denise Ellsworth: yeah great.
Denise Ellsworth: So lots of interest in Queens and how they over winner also ways that folks in the audience can help Queens either are there, artificial nesting strategies what plants can help Queens nest are can you move ness once the Queen has found a spot so that kind of Queen.
Focus there okay.
Heather Holm: yeah so the there are some different designs online for Bumblebee nest boxes i've heard people have varying success in attracting a Bumblebee more success, to my knowledge in Europe.
Heather Holm: They have, for example in the UK they've had great success attracting bumblebees to the they're basically one boxes, with a an entry.
Heather Holm: The key thing that people do where they do have successes collecting all mouse nest so again going back to that smell that the Queen may be utilizing.
Heather Holm: While she's doing her nest searching could help lower in a Bumblebee to.
Heather Holm: A structured nesting site, but again it's about gardening practices, you know, leaving things a little Messier having natural debris on the ground that provides attractive places for bumblebees and also for mice that that will help encourage bumblebees to nest in your yard.
Heather Holm: Okay back to the other part, let me think what what you have to remind me, you need sorry.
Denise Ellsworth: i'll have moving as can you move.
Heather Holm: In so.
Heather Holm: yeah so native bees do a lot of orientation, as they leave and ask them they'll do little orientation place, including bumblebees so when you move in so it's really throws them off.
Heather Holm: People have various success, you know collecting a nest and moving it at night and then repositioning it.
Heather Holm: In a different location i've heard that you need to put it at least 60 feet away from its original location, but often the nest is not very successful for much longer, when when it's been moved so something I wouldn't recommend unless you absolutely have to move the nest but.
Denise Ellsworth: OK, so the question I got the most votes was about Minnesota and it's a it's an answer you may not have maybe together we can we can talk about it, but the question was just powdery mildew that gets on the bomb affect those pollinating insects.
Heather Holm: Not that i'm aware of, and maybe you've heard different Denise.
Heather Holm: I find if I grow them in order in you know open habitats good good wind.
Heather Holm: That I don't worry too much about powdery mildew because it doesn't seem to affect.
Heather Holm: The plants ability to produce flowers and nectar and so on for for bees, but i'll let you chip in yeah.
Denise Ellsworth: Right, and I would agree with that that usually the powdery mildew is a leaf pathogens, so we see it on the leaves but it doesn't really affect the flowers so i'm not sure that it would even be something that the bees would.
Denise Ellsworth: Possibly you know gather and transport, but again native plants and native bees they've evolved together and so.
Denise Ellsworth: i'm not sure about this pathogen whether it's most likely is native but i'm not sure, but there you know it doesn't necessarily mean it's detrimental just because it's detrimental to the plant doesn't mean it's detrimental to the be I did a really quick.
Denise Ellsworth: Google scholar search and didn't see any papers that talked about that, but I thought i'd addresses since lots of people had questions about that so usually powdery mildew is more cosmetic right it bothers the gardener's but doesn't seem to affect the bees.
Heather Holm: Exactly yeah.
Denise Ellsworth: There were questions about stings and a few participants who noted that.
Denise Ellsworth: they've been gardening for a long time their neighbors have children, children have been stung and and how to kind of finesse that I know you've worked a lot in your community with other groups that are starting pollinator gardens and how do you kind of approach that issue of stings.
Heather Holm: yeah I look at it from behaviourally so if these are visiting flowering plants, I call that they're they're out at the restaurant and usually stinging occurs.
Heather Holm: Through nesta fence so it's it's pretty unusual to get stung by a Bumblebee unless you pick one up in your hand and, of course, if it's a female she will sting you.
Heather Holm: Or, in many cases bumblebees will be flying and get caught in the clothing of a gardener and then staying but it's pretty unusual for children running around.
Heather Holm: A garden to to get stung so often I sort of question whether it was actually a native be versus perhaps a ground nesting yellow jacket that was was really the insect that they got stung by so obviously don't disturb a Bumblebee nest if you find one, but they do a lot of sort of.
Heather Holm: buzzing and threatening flying around, but their last resort, would be distinct someone so they're not out and actively looking to sustain us so that's hopefully we can look at it from that perspective that they want to be our friends and we just have to respect where they live.
Denise Ellsworth: When I think it's made that up for a lot of people their gateway be is the Bumblebee some.
Denise Ellsworth: You know gardeners remember his children petting bumbles as they.
Denise Ellsworth: visit flowers and when they're foraging they're really thinking about the flowers are not so worried about you, so they do tend to be a really gentle be separate their nesting.
Denise Ellsworth: Oh let's see so there were.
Denise Ellsworth: Several questions related to how we manage our gardens or even larger meadow areas, and do you have suggestions for how to you know timing cutbacks other management strategies that will help bumblebees specifically.
Heather Holm: yeah so as I mentioned, like my own gardening practices, I generally am not removing anything from my garden, so if you're I leave all the flowering plant stocks up for the winter.
Heather Holm: And then I really try and pay attention to what's happening physiologically in the spring.
Heather Holm: And then cut down stuff but allow that debris to become more of that debris layer which I would hope that is attractive to bumblebees So if you can time your things.
Heather Holm: Before Queens have established in so a good good thing to look for is queen s searching and that might be.
Heather Holm: Your your indicator to get that get your gardening stuff done pretty quickly meaning cutting stuff down.
Heather Holm: And then try and stay out of the garden after that, so the less that you aren't doing and disturbing is better for many of our pollinating and beneficial insects, so I really do one round of cut down in my garden and that's pretty much it for for the growing season.
Denise Ellsworth: Go I will put a quick plug in for the Bumblebee short course that will be our next webinar series here with osu and i'll send everyone information about that will be focusing specifically on Bumblebee biology identification and conservation so look for that coming up.
Denise Ellsworth: i'm heather your photography just got so many oohs and ahhs in the the question in the chat box any kind of tips or suggestions for people who would like to.
Denise Ellsworth: You know, take those observations, for I naturalist or just do some some great garden photography, how do you get those those great be PICs.
Heather Holm: yeah I would say start with your movements and not you know, anticipating and watching Bumblebee behavior or other native bees you'll start to learn what plants, they like.
Heather Holm: So the other key thing is smooth movements, meaning approach the flowering plants slowly, so you don't scare off the be and then.
Heather Holm: just have the camera ready, so I don't do a lot of cell phone related photography, but I do use my cell phone for for video.
Heather Holm: Particularly for slow motion video so that's a fun way to capture grooming and foraging behaviors to help to help you understand what what is it exactly that the B.
Heather Holm: is doing, while visiting fire so buzz pollination in slow motion is really fun to capture on your cell phone.
Heather Holm: So if you have that flowering rose plant get up early in the morning go sit by and because you know the bees will come there and so just being in the right place at the right time is is one of the really key things.
Heather Holm: Okay.
Denise Ellsworth: A lot of people have strong opinions about using non native plants in the garden or cultivars and I wonder what your perspective is as far as what these are using and how people can kind of balance that.
Heather Holm: Dynamic yeah so a lot of the non native plants that people use in the gardens that bumblebees in particular are really attracted to.
Heather Holm: are often nectar plans so that's not necessarily a bad thing, but i'm just on a superficial level some people think oh this bumblebees love this plan and that's fine but.
Heather Holm: Hopefully you know what I tried to illustrate today is next having an abundance of nectar plans is great, but we have to have that compliment of.
Heather Holm: Of those pollen plants, and those are generally native plants that bumblebees will be using utilizing for pollen so nothing, nothing harmful in including non native plants that are.
Heather Holm: attractive to bumblebees as long as they don't have the potential to become invasive, of course, but you have to think of it as a holistic planning in order to provide all those wonderful food sources for these.
Denise Ellsworth: Great thanks heather so i'll let everyone know that we've had heather several times as a webinar speaker, I think you can see why she's so knowledgeable and has a great presentation style and.
Denise Ellsworth: Those amazing images, if you go back to our YouTube channel you'll find some of those past recordings, or if you visit the V lab website.
Denise Ellsworth: We have those past recordings link she did one last year on her book on wasps others on on specialist bees and how to manage habitat for all these great pollinators so.
Denise Ellsworth: Be sure to look for some of heather's past teachings to gain more insight from her and then heather just a couple words about your new book i'm really excited to to get it.
Heather Holm: Oh yeah that's just sort of that's truly a beginner's guide I partnered with a another publisher so it will showcase.
Heather Holm: The different genera in eastern North America and some common species so it'll be.
Heather Holm: The book to get for that friend of yours it's just starting to get interested in in native bees and understanding diversity so it's for many of those folks tuning in maybe not as advanced as they'd like but that's that's the purpose of the new guy.
Denise Ellsworth: that's great great can't wait to see it so thanks again heather thanks everyone for coming, and I know you got lots of notes and ideas for plants to add to your garden from today's talk excited to see everyone next Friday for Denver Kentucky and enjoy your enjoy your week.
Heather Holm: Thank you.
Denise Ellsworth: Thanks heather.