Why Are Bumble Bees Disappearing?

A USDA scientist is trying to learn what is causing the decline in bumble bees and also is searching for a species that can serve as the next generation of greenhouse pollinators.

Bumble bees, like honey bees, are important pollinators of native plants and are used to pollinate greenhouse crops like peppers and tomatoes. But colonies of Bombus occidentalis used for greenhouse pollination began to suffer from disease problems in the late 1990s and companies stopped rearing them, according to a recent news release from USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS). Populations of other bumble bee species are also believed to be in decline.

Entomologist James Strange is looking for solutions at the ARS Pollinating Insects — Biology, Management and Systematics Research Unit in Logan, UT. ARS is USDA’s chief intramural scientific research agency, and this research supports the USDA priority of improving agricultural sustainability.

Read more about this research in the August 2011 issue of Agricultural Research magazine. 

For more information, go to www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2011/110811.htm

Source: Dennis O’Brien, USDA-ARS