What we can do to save the fuzzy little heroes of agriculture

There are unsung heroes among us. They are easily recognized but often overlooked. If heard, they are avoided. If seen, they are often killed. And they are dying off by the thousands.

These humble heroes are our native bumblebees. Their decline is cause for concern as it coincides with serious setbacks in the European honey bee population.

While media have directed attention to the honey bee's woes, equal attention should be drawn to the plight of bumblebees in North America. These native bees are taking a huge hit from habitat loss, pesticides, and diseases transferred in greenhouses.

To know them is to love them, and you gotta love them before you can save them. So first a biographical sketch of bumblebees. In spring a queen emerges from hibernation and sets out to build a nest for the colony-to-be. She gathers pollen from early-blooming wildflowers and takes the pollen back to the nest. In the nest, she lays fertilized eggs on a ball of pollen. She broods the eggs until they hatch into larvae. The larvae spin silk to create a cocoon and thus enter the pupal stage of their life. When they emerge from the cocoon, the first batch are all female. These are the workers. They get down to business right away searching, or foraging, for nectar and pollen. In the meantime, the queen lays unfertilized eggs which become males. After some time, she lays another batch of eggs that are females. These lucky gals will become new queens who will mate with the males. The old queen, workers, and males from the original colony die off. The new queens are ready to hibernate and begin the cycle anew the next spring.

Worker bumblebees are big, fuzzy, clumsy-looking insects. Most sport patterns of yellow and black and are covered with soft hairs. There are 11 bumblebee species in Illinois, all quite striking in their coloration and girth.

No doubt you've seen a worker bumblebee or two in your garden as she forages for food. When she finds a suitable nectar-filled flower she fits her portly body - or parts thereof - inside. No small feat! But bumblebees are surprisingly adroit at negotiating the ins and outs of flower blossoms. Watch her buzzing around a snapdragon, for example. She approaches the runway (the lower petal) and deftly zooms in for a perfect landing. From the landing pad she slips right into the flower. Lo and behold, the bee's rotund body is a perfect fit for the snapdragon.

But the real action is yet to come. As the female bumblebee bellies up to the bar to get her fill of nectar, she does some pretty wild dance moves. With her jaws and her feet, she grasps a structure called the stamen which bears the pollen-laden anther. Then, there's a whole lotta shaking going on. The bumblebee starts vibrating like crazy, moving only her flight muscles but not her wings.

"This vibration shakes electrostatically charged pollen out of the anthers," explains Sue Rosenthal in BayNature, "and the pollen is attracted to the bumblebee's oppositely charged body hairs."

The name for this crazy action is buzz pollination. And bumblebees are buzz pollinators par excellence.

Satiated with nectar and doused with pollen, what's next for the party girl? Well, she's got legs and she knows how to use them. With front legs, she sweeps the pollen from her body into a special pollen basket on each hind leg. This pollen basket, called a corbiculum, is a smooth indented area ringed with stiff hairs.

With baskets loaded, the female bee leaves the flower and cruises around to find another nectar-bearing blossom. She is toting pollen baskets filled to the brim and some pollen spills in each flower she visits. Enough remains, however, to nourish the colony back home.

Bumblebees are called generalist pollinators because they can visit many different kinds of plants.

"As generalist foragers," explains Serina Jepson of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, "they do not depend on any one flower type."

The fact that bumblebees are not picky combined with the fact that they emerge in spring makes them worth their weight in gold as pollinators. Not only can they forage from early in the season till late in the season, they can also pollinate numerous kinds of plants. On our end of things, this makes for a very valuable assistant in agriculture.

"However," Jepson adds, "some plants do rely on bumble bees to achieve pollination."

In other words, some plants will lose out if their pollinators become scarce, extirpated, or - worst case scenario - extinct. No pollination means no fruit, no fruit means no seeds, and no seeds means no new plants.

The list of native plants pollinated by bumblebees is lengthy, and the absence of bumblebees to pollinate them will ultimately result in their demise. Consider the Jacob's ladder in spring woodlands and summer stalwarts such as wild indigo, pale coneflower, Penstemon, gentians, touch-me-nots, milkweed, wild phlox, and the rare prairie thistle. The reduction or absence of species of these wild plants would affect herbivores and other living strands of the big tapestry of our ecosystems.

"Loss of bumble bees can have far-ranging ecological impacts," warns Jepson.

The effects of pollinator loss in our beleaguered natural areas are dire. Yet serious consequences are also borne in the produce section of the grocery store.

"Bumblebees are responsible for pollinating an estimated 15 percent of all the crops grown in the U.S., worth $3 billion, particularly those raised in greenhouses," reports entomologist Robbin Thorp, professor emeritus from University of California-Davis. "Those include tomatoes, peppers and strawberries."

Add avocado, raspberries, cherries, blueberries, and alfalfa and the importance of bumblebees hits home. When you request a side order of fries, thank a bumblebee because bumblebees are the only pollinators of potatoes.

Bumblebees and scores of other native pollinators are facing severe challenges. By default, we face challenges too. It's our turn to be heroes - or at the very least, to rectify environmental problems that we have created. We can champion the preservation and restoration of natural areas for the good of bumblebees, butterflies, wildflowers, trees, and a host of creatures big and small.

Here's how you can help:

• Volunteer for the Kane County Forest Preserve District's habitat restoration program. Visit www.kaneforest.com and click on "volunteer" to find out when, where and how you can chip in.

• Reduce the use of pesticides in your yard and garden.

• Plant a pollinator-friendly native plant garden.

• Celebrate National Pollinator Week this week! Visit pollinator.org/index.html for ideas and information.

A naturalist with the Forest Preserve District of Kane County, Valerie Blaine is abuzz about National Pollinator Week. You may contact her at blainevalerie@kaneforest.com.

<p class="factboxheadblack">Bumblebee mythbusting</p> <p class="News">Have you heard the story that a bumblebee should not be able to fly? Rumor has it that some scientist - or so the story goes - measured body ratio to wing size, did some fancy calculations and determined that the bumblebee is not aerodynamically fit to fly. </p> <p class="News">Cornell University physicist Z. Jane Wang finally debunked this myth in 2000, and the bumblebee is finally "cleared for takeoff." </p> <p class="News">Using computer simulations and updated information about fluid dynamics, Wang proved the obvious: bumblebees can indeed fly. </p> <p class="News">As reported in a Cornell University news release, Wang stated, "I'm sure no one, including the bees, seriously doubted that insects can fly. Now we're beginning to understand why."</p>