Bumblebees: the wild bees to protect

The members of the genus Bombus present on our planet today belong to about 250 known species .

The known species of bees , belonging to the Apoidea superfamily , are instead about 25 thousand and many are still unknown.

Bees and bumblebees are hymenoptera, an order of insects that includes a million species, 70% of all we know today.
Until recently, the number of species was even higher, but, with the unbridled development of human activities, it fell very rapidly .

When our ancestors began to spread from Africa to other continents, many large mammals quickly disappeared either because they were hunted directly by man or because of a lack of food resources as their prey was hunted by man.

The rate of extinction of animal and plant species has been growing more and more and today, due to us, it is 100 to 1000 times faster than the natural one.

Obviously, the extinction also includes insects , increasingly threatened by the massive use of pesticides in agriculture and the reduction of their natural habitat .

Intensive agriculture and monoculture in fact, they destroy woods, prairies, uncultivated fields and sweep away the flowers and plants that the hymenoptera feed on.

Herbicides further eliminate wild plant species and insecticides, as well as being toxic to crop pests, are also often toxic to bees and bumblebees.

To date , only three bumblebees are thought to have gone extinct :

•  Bombus rubriventris ;
• Bombus melanopoda;
• Bombus franklini

but it is likely that others will follow.

Unfortunately , the extinction of insects often takes second place compared to that of large animals when, on the contrary, it should worry us a lot because these small animals are very important for the ecosystem.

The association between honey and wild and domestic bees is perhaps the simplest, but honey production is not the most important task: insects play a fundamental role in ecosystems , such as pollination and decomposition, and without them. very many species would not survive, including man.

Plants that rely on insects to be pollinated , for example, would not be able to reproduce and, without plants , animals and humans would have serious problems related to the supply of food, not to mention the importance of trees for the production of oxygen. , the removal of carbon dioxide and other substances, the lowering of the temperature and the regulation of humidity.

Let’s help the bumblebees

Although the nests of bees and bumblebees are often targeted by numerous predators because they contain honey and pollen, it is of little use to set up a shelter for bees or houses for bumblebees , as these hymenoptera tend to nest in the natural environment.

To help bumblebees and bees it is important to create an environment favorable to them, cultivating plants that these insects like and avoiding the use of insecticides as much as possible, even in our vegetable gardens and gardens.

Although bumblebees and bees are efficient, quick and accurate in finding and finding patches of flowers even far from each other, they require a lot of energy to do so.

To help insectsit is therefore important that the fields are bordered by flowering hedges and fruit trees or that the crops are interspersed with meadows full of wild flowers .

Protecting bumblebees and wild bees is something that each of us can do by planting one or more plants loved by these insects in our garden, balcony or terrace.

Bumblebees love lavender , for example, as do many aromatic plants such as chives , sage , thyme and rosemary .

Other plants that attract and feed bumblebees and that can be grown easily without too much maintenance are comfrey, lupine, blue viper and columbine.

In this way it is possible to create an environment suitable for wildlife and protect bumblebees but also butterflies, birds, crops and, in general, all life on the planet.

Sources

Dave Goulson, ” The Return of the Queen – My Adventures with the Wild Bees ” – HOEPLI