Bumblebee behavior and buzz pollination
Bumblebees
are a lot like big honeybees in terms of behavior. The major
differences
are that bumblebees have smaller colonies which start from scratch each
spring since only the queen overwinters. Bumblebee.org has a nice
rundown on their life
cycle and foraging
behavior, for those who are
interested.
Like honeybees, bumblebees are generalists which pollinate a long list
of plant species.
But bumblebees are especially important for a few species of plants ---
notably tomatoes and blueberries --- which require buzz
pollination. These plants have pollen
which doesn't
easily brush off the anthers of the flowers. Instead, bumblebees
have to land on the flowers and vibrate their flight muscles, causing a
buzz which knocks the pollen loose.
Honeybees don't buzz, so buzz pollinated plants pretty much depend on
bumblebees. Greenhouse tomato growers
have experimented with using vibrators to pollinate their tomatoes, but
finally settled on bumblebees as the easier and cheaper solution.
| This post is part of our Bumblebee lunchtime series.
Read all of the entries: |
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.