Body questions

Can bumblebees sting or bite?
How fast can a bumblebee fly?
I've heard that bumblebees shouldn't be able to fly, where does the story come from?
How often does a bumblebee beat its wings?
How do bumblebees mate?
What are the bumblebees with white faces?
I found a bumblebee covered in red mites, what are they?
Can a bumblebee bite through skin?
How do bees buzz?
How long does a bumblebee live?
Can a bumblebee hear?
Why doesn't a bumblebee die after it stings?
What does a baby bumblebee look like?
Why are bumblebees black and yellow?
Does a bumblebee have bones or a skeleton?
How many eyes does a bumblebee have?
How does a bumblebee breathe?
How do you tell the difference between a male and a female?
What is a bumblebee's skin made of?

Behaviour questions

What to do if you find a bumblebee that cannot fly?
How can you tell when a bumblebee is feeling threatened?
Bees are eating my house/digging up my lawn, making holes in wood, hovering and attacking anything nearby!
What do they eat?
I keep finding bees in the house, but the windows are closed.
A lone bee is hovering over my deck, patrolling my deck.
Why does my dog eat bumblebees?
What eats bumblebees?
What is pollination, and why are bumblebee so good at it?

How fast can a bumblebee fly?

Well it depends what it is doing. Very slowly when the queen is looking for a nest site, and also when flying low over flowers. However when a worker emerges from the nest to fly to a known foraging site she can fly much faster than I could run when I was reasonably fit. Some foraging bumblebees have been recorded flying at 16 km per hour.

How do bumblebees mate?

As mentioned in the life cycle page, the males emerge from the nest before the queens. When the males are not drinking nectar from flowers they fly along regular routes stopping on the way. Studies in Scandinavia have shown that each species has a favoured height for these patrols, some fairly close to the ground, and others at around 15 metres. They stop at the same places on route, there are probably easily seen landmarks, and deposit a fragrant secretion from a gland between their mandibles (jaws). This tends to happen in the morning, but they will replenish the marking after rain. Again the group of chemicals that make up the secretion appears to be different in each species. Sladen, in his book, says that this secretion has a smell that even humans could detect, and that it is very pleasant. It is not known for sure, but it is assumed that the queens detect the males by flying around at the correct height till they detect the fragrance of the males. Then mating takes place. However mating is rarely observed in the wild. The bees couple with the male hanging on to the queens back. Usually they mate on the ground or foliage, but there have been sightings of largish queens flying with a small male still attached to her. The time taken for matings also varies widely from 10 to 80 minutes. However the time taken fro the transfer of sperm from the male to the queen is only 2 minutes. The rest of the time is taken up with waiting for the sticky genital plug passed from the male to the queen to harden inside the queen's genital opening. This plug prevents the passage of sperm from other matings, so this may be the reason that the bees stay stuck together in a very vulnerable position, and may explain sightings of large queens flying around with hapless males stuck behind them. Perhaps she just got fed up once the necessary (for her anyway) bit was over.

Nest questions

What do you do if you find a bumblebee nest?
Do you get honey from a bumblebee nest, and if so how much?
How do bees make honey?
Can you keep bumblebees the same way as you can keep hive bees?

Species and names questions

What is a cuckoo bumblebee?
How many species of bumblebee are there in the world?
What are the common names of bumblebees, and why bother with Latin names?
What is the taxonomic classification of bumblebees?
Which UK bumblebees are endangered?
How did the bumblebee get its name?

I've looked through the pages and still cannot find an answer to my question.

What are the bumblebees with white faces?

Some bumblebees have a whitish or yellow patch of hairs just below or between their eyes. In the European species and, I believe, in some American species these are males. They cannot sting, and generally they appear towards the end of the nest life, just before the new queens hatch out.

I've looked through the pages and still cannot find an answer to my question.

If you post a question in the feedback page I will try to answer your question, but do try to make sure your bee really is a bumblebee before writing, and do include as much information as you can, e.g. location, flowers, size, colour. The more information I have, the better I will be able to answer your question. Please do not send me your homework, e-mails that ask me to "prepare a five minute talk on an animal of your choice" will not be answered! However I will try to help with parts of school projects or essays.

Can a bumblebee bite through skin?

No. The bumblebee's jaws are just not strong enough. They cannot bite or gnaw through wood either.

How do bees buzz?

The buzzing sound is heard when the bee makes the air vibrate in some way. It used to be thought that the movement of the wings caused the sound. However the bees can buzz even when the wings are at rest. So it is probably the vibration of the muscles in the thorax causing the thorax to vibrate that makes the buzzing sound.

I've heard that bumblebees shouldn't be able to fly, where does the story come from?

Human engineers with big brains said it was impossible for bumblebees to fly. But bumblebees with small brains didn't know this so continued to fly on in blissful ignorance. For more background on this story of our ignorance and arrogance read these links. Link 1, Link 2, Link 3

Can a bumblebee sting or bite?

Actually it can do both, but it mandibles (jaws) are not strong enough to cause any pain to a human, and are used mainly for moulding the wax for the cocoons, honeypots and pollen stores. Also the mandibles are rounded, so have next to no piercing ability. Some species, mainly Bombus lucorum, do use their mandibles for nectar robbing, but it takes them ages to pierce through a flower to steal the nectar, so human skin is in no danger. This is also why a bumblebee nest in the house will cause no damage as they cannot drill or dig. Workers (females) and queens can sting (see this page for photographs etc.), and they have an unbarbed sting , so could sting repeatedly,unlike honey bees, but rarely do. The only time I have heard of bumblebees stinging is when they have been roughly handled, or their nest or the entrance to the nest is being tampered with. I have never been stung, and I have handled hundreds, measuring tongue lengths, head widths etc. I can honestly say they are the most accommodating insects to work with - hence my deep fondness for them.

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