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Can you bust these seven bumblebee myths?

Every year, we receive hundreds of questions about bumblebees, such as how to identify a rare species and whether bumblebees die when they sting you. Would you like to understand more about how bumblebees fly? Or have you ever wondered where bumblebees evolved from? We have picked out some of our favourite myths and questions about bumblebees to help you understand more about their bee-utiful behaviours.

Bumblebee on yellow toadflax flower.

by Sinead Munro, Bumblebee Conservation Assistant

  • 1. All bumblebees have yellow and black stripes.

    Myth!

    Although most people picture a black and yellow striped creature when imagining a bumblebee, our furry friends can actually vary dramatically between species and caste.

    For example, the Tree bumblebee (below) has a gingery-brown thorax, a black abdomen and a white tail.

    Red-tailed bumblebee queens and workers have no yellow hair, but instead are mostly black with bright red tails (which fades to ginger) whereas males can be easily distinguished from females because of their yellow facial hair and yellow bands on the thorax.

    Lastly, beneath all its fuzzy hair, a bumblebee’s exoskeleton is actually completely black. It is only the hair that gives a bumblebee its colour. So you may spot a bumblebee’s exoskeletal ‘true colours’ between July-September when older looking bumblebees start to lose their hair.

  • 2. Bumblebees are important for producing honey.

    Myth!

    Only honeybees (right) produce honey for their colony to feed on over winter. Bumblebees don’t do this because only the queens hibernate while the rest of their nest (the workers, males, and old queen) all perish at the end of summer. Queen bumblebees feed heavily on nectar to store in fat reserves before going into hibernation.

  • 3. Bumblebees shouldn’t be able to fly.

    Myth!

    This myth stems from a well-known story of some engineers who proved that bumblebees shouldn’t be able to fly because their wings are too small for the size of their bodies. In reality, bumblebees fly in quite a complicated way with their four wings, they don’t just flap them up and down which probably would make it impossible for them to fly. In fact, they flap their wings front to back and simultaneously rotate them, like a figure-8, to create enough lift!

  • 4. Bumblebees can dislocate their wings.

    True!

    Another impressive thing bumblebees can do with their wings is dislocate them from their flight muscles and shiver them to warm themselves up. This is just one technique bumblebees use in order to keep warm because they are cold-blooded creatures so they cannot regulate their own body temperature.

  • 5. Bumblebees can sting.

    True!

    Only female bees (queens and workers) can sting, males cannot. Bumblebees are quite docile so they will only sting if they feel under threat. Unlike honeybees, they are not likely to die when they sting. Honeybees have barbed stingers which can get stuck in whatever they are stinging and gets pulled off as it flies away. Bumblebees have smooth stingers which allows them to fly away easily and eject less venom.

  • 6. Bumblebees are related to wasps.

    True!

    This happened about 130 million years ago when some types of wasp shifted from feeding their larvae insects to pollen, leading to the evolution of bees over millions of years. This happened around the same time as flowering plants started to evolve on a mass scale. Specifically, bumblebees evolved in the Himalayas around 25-40 million years ago where they were adapted to live at cooler temperatures and spread from Asia following a period of global cooling.

  • 7. Bumblebee populations are declining because of predators.

    Myth!

    This is not to say that like most animals, bumblebees don’t have a number of predators. Badgers occasionally dig up bumblebee nests to eat the stored pollen and larvae when their other food sources are scarce, birds such as robins and great blue tits will eat bumblebees, and wasps and flies take this a step further by lay eggs inside live bumblebees or their nests. Despite these immediate threats, bumblebees and their predators have co-existed alongside one another for thousands of years so this natural competition doesn’t threaten the wider bumblebee population. The biggest threat posed to bumblebees is human-caused habitat loss and pesticide exposure. The best thing we can do to help bumblebees is to plant a variety of bee-friendly flowers that bloom throughout the year. Take a look at our free Bee the Change resources for some gardening inspiration!