Yellow-faced Bumblebee

"Bombus vosnesenskii"

Home sweet home

The yard is delightfully full of bumblebees this summer.  I call them "my bees" because they made a nest under our old garage.  They go in and out all day through this little tunnel in the ground under the clematis.  We get along great, as long as I don't accidentally spray water on their front door.

It took some effort to identify them (they won't hold still) but I believe this is the lovely Yellow-faced bumblebee, fairly common in the Northwest but still precious, as all bumblebees are endangered.

Bumblebee nests are small, and most form colonies between 50 and 400 individuals. They are not aggressive or picnic pests. They nest in the ground under piles of old leaves or compost, a problem in tidy city yards.

Bumblebees are key pollinators and have the ability to buzz pollinate, or vibrate a flower at a frequency that causes pollen to explode on the bee. In their fuzzy coats, they are the first to work in chilly spring weather, and the last to quit in the fall. 

Bumblebees are also keystone species, meaning that a lot of other species in the ecosystem depend on them.

Aren't we lucky?

Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway.
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