U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Yellow Banded Bumble (Bombus terricola)

The yellow banded bumble bee is a highly social that lives in colonies that include a queen, female worker , male bees, and new queens. They do not store honey, but instead require abundant floral resources from early spring through the fall to survive. They also need undisturbed natural areas for colony nesting and for winter hibernation.

Yellow banded bumble bees are an important and especially effective pollinator of wild and crops, many of which birds and other rely on for food. They have several advantages over other pollinators. sticks to their large fuzzy bodies, and they can fly in cool, rainy, and unfavorable weather and when light levels are lower (such as at dawn and dusk). The entire colony participates in .

Range This bee was once common throughout its range, historically found in 25 United States and 12 Canadian provinces. In recent decades, the species’ range has receded in the southern and far western areas of its range. It appears to have been extirpated from much of the Pacific Northwest, Southern Appalachians, and Southeast Plains and may be more patchily distributed where it remains. Service and Wildlife Molly Jacobson/U.S. Fish Yellow banded bumble bee

Queens and workers Males have long yellow hair on have a distinct fringe of top of the head and on the face brownish-yellow hair on and a fringe of black-yellow the fifth segment of the hair on the fifth segment of the abdomen abdomen Illustration Credit: Elaine Evans/The Xerces Society Appearance All yellow banded bumble bees have entirely black heads, and the second and third segments of the abdomen as well as the front of the thorax are yellow. Queens are the largest bees in the colony and are the first ones seen in early spring.

Habitat Yellow banded bumble bees prefer undisturbed woodlands, wetlands, prairies, and meadows. They need native flowering trees, shrubs, berries and wildflowers from early spring to fall, because and pollen provide them with the necessary fuel, protein and nutrients to grow, successfully breed, and survive. The colony nests in natural cavities like abandoned rodent burrows. In the winter, the queen hibernates in an underground cavity she excavates in loose soil. Nesting and overwintering sites are optimally located near ample flowering resources.

Reproduction In early spring, the solitary queen emerges from hibernation and finds a nest site. She begins laying eggs that are fertilized by stored since mating the previous fall, and rearing the young. Worker bees hatch and the colony grows as the workers collect food, care for the young, and defend the colony. In late summer, new queens and males hatch from eggs. The male bees disperse to mate with new queens from other colonies. In late fall, the founding queens, workers and males die. The new queens overwinter and begin the cycle again in spring. Feeding habits flowers, shrubs, and trees are especially Bumble bees are important! The yellow banded bumble bee is one important. Examples include pussy One out of every three bites we of the earliest species to emerge from willows, lupine, milkweed, asters, bee winter hibernation in the spring. They balm, and American black elderberry. consume comes from food that has gather pollen and nectar from April n Provide nesting and overwintering been grown with the helping wings through October. Early spring flowers sites. Yellow banded bumble bees build of a pollinator such as the yellow nests and hibernate in undisturbed soil, banded bumble bee. are especially important and provide much needed food for the queen after abandoned rodent burrows and along About 75 percent of our agricultural winter hibernation, and the first eggs woodland edges. Keep unmowed, natural and bees that hatch. Late fall flowers areas and reduce tilling soil. Support crops depend on insect, bird, and are also critical to the survival of new natural areas in your community, county mammal pollinators. Pollinators queens, because substantial body and state. help nearly all flowering plants fat reserves are needed to survive n Plant pollinator gardens in urban and reproduce, and create seeds and hibernation. Queens without suitable fat suburban areas as these pockets of fruits that feed wildlife from reserves will die before flowers can provide additional pollen songbirds to bears. spring emergence. and nectar. Avoid or limit pesticides: The economic value of pollination Why may bumble bees and other n Avoid or limit the use of these chemicals. services provided by native pollinators be declining? Alternative non-chemical pollinator (mostly bees) is estimated at $10 Disease: Pathogens and parasites friendly options can often address billion per year in the United States. reduce the health and number of wild the problem: https://www.fws.gov/ bumble bee colonies. High densities of pollinators/PollinatorPages/YourHelp. We wouldn’t have these, managed bees (commercial bumble bees html without the bees! and honey bees) can increase the risk n Ask your local nursery for plants that of spreading disease as they interact have not been treated with systemic with and use the same food and nesting insecticides. habitat as wild bees. n Purchase organic plants if possible. Insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides: n Request that landscape and gardening Chemicals that we use to kill or control companies not use pesticides on insects and undesirable plants can have your property, and ask them to plant toxic effects on bumble bees. organically grown plants. Habitat loss and degradation: n Use Integrated Pest Management Natural habitat has been lost, degraded, in yards, gardens and farmlands: and fragmented by conversion to https://www.fws.gov/pollinators/pdfs/ other uses. FWS_IPM_Urban_Outreach_Final_ The effects of climate change: April_26_2018_final_web_508.pdf and Increased temperature and precipitation more tips at: https://www.xerces.org/ extremes, increased drought, early pesticides/pesticides-your-garden snow melt and late frost events may Reduce spread of pathogens and parasites: lead to reduced floral resources, nesting n Use these safeguards within managed habitat, and foraging time, as well as a bee operations to reduce the risks and mis-match between timing of available negative effects to native bees: spring flowering plants and bumble bee •Monitor pathogens and parasites in emergence. Reduced floral resources managed bee stocks. can lead to nutritional defciencies •Treat pathogens and parasites to and smaller populations, which make reduce their spread to wild bees. colonies more susceptible to disease. •Prevent the escape of managed Public domain photos: Creative Commons (CC0 1.0) Together these stressors may have even bumble bees. Blueberries, tomatoes, pumpkins and more of an effect. •Follow regulations for the transport assorted vegetables Loss of genetic diversity: of managed bees across state and Yellow-banded bumble bee habitat Small and/or geographically isolated international boundaries. For the Yellow Banded Bumble Bee populations can lead to inbreeding, Participate in citizen science projects: Species Status Assessment (Use of n Participate in citizen science efforts to sterile male production, smaller colonies, newer browser is recommended as and colony extinction. monitor bees: https://xerces.org/citizen- science/ older browser may not work): n Use and help develop survey methods https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp0/profile/ What can you do to conserve bumble speciesProfile?sId=10403 bees and other pollinators? that do not kill bees or other insects, Provide Habitat such as photography and net collection and release. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service n Use region-specific native plants 1 800/344 WILD and planting guides to benefit native http://www.fws.gov pollinators such as https://www. pollinator.org/guides and https://xerces. May 2020 org/pollinator-conservation/plant-lists/. n Replace nonnative or invasive plants with native species instead! Early spring ephemerals and fall blooming