In the spring a bumblebee queen will lay eggs to create a new colony. In the beginning she is on her own and takes care of her first brood consisting of workers. The queen continues to lay eggs until there are between 150 and 400 workers, then eggs are laid from which young queens and males (drones) are formed. The bumblebees all eventually die, except for the young queens, who look for a place to hibernate after fertilization. A bumblebee can choose a place for its nest that you are not so happy with. What should you do if a bumblebee’s nest is built in an unwanted place?
The start of a bumblebee’s nest
When the daytime temperature is warmer than 10 degrees, usually around mid-March, the first queens emerge from their hibernation site from the ground. The first days they will feed and in the evening they will crawl back into their shelter. The bumblebee is a different kind of animal than the honey bee. A bee will want to hibernate with its colony, and a bumblebee colony almost completely dies before winter comes. In the spring the queen will lay eggs from which workers emerge. Once the workers are adults, they take care of the newly born workers. When the colony consists of about 150 to 400 workers, drones and queens are born. Then the old queen will stop laying and will die. The young queens will be left when the rest of the colony has died out and they will hibernate in the ground.
Darren
When the queen decides not to fertilize her eggs anymore, males, also called drones, emerge 25 days later. The queen continues to produce males until the stage where the workers also lay eggs that are also unfertilized.
Young queens
At some point, queen larvae will arrive to ensure the survival of the species. The amount of available food determines when new queens are raised.
Mating
Three days after hatching, the drone will leave the colony. This happens in the period from the end of July and it will spread scents. The drone does not have a stinger and therefore cannot sting. Young queens will leave the colony after 5 days after they develop. After leaving the colony, there is a good chance that she will be attracted by the scent of the male. Then mating will take place and the queen will look for a place to hibernate.
The end
The bumblebee’s nest will become increasingly empty as males and queens leave the colony. The workers will gradually die of old age and no new eggs will hatch. Eventually an old queen with a few workers will remain and eventually the bumblebees will die and the nest will be empty.
Bumblebees are not aggressive
People sometimes confuse bumblebees with bees and wasps and fear that they will be attacked. Therefore they do not want a bumblebee nest in the garden and will want to control bumblebees. Flying bumblebees are also sometimes killed by humans for fear of stings. But that is not necessary at all. A bumblebee is not an aggressive animal and they will not bother you the way wasps can. Bumblebees are less likely to sting and will do so at most if they feel cornered or made aggressive by someone hitting them. A bumblebee does not have barbs on the stinger like a bee, so it does not lose its stinger while stinging. So he can sting several times. These little fatties generally leave humans alone.
Leave a bumblebee’s nest
Bumblebees do not need to be killed. In the past, bumblebees could quietly establish their colonies everywhere, but due to the overpopulation they will increasingly make a nest in the habitat of humans, for example in a cavity wall, garage or birdhouse in the garden. Also, due to the modern methods of cultivating fields, it is often not possible for the bumblebee to build a nest. These are then destroyed by the agricultural implements. The number of bumblebees has decreased dramatically in recent years.
Nuisance
What should you do if you suffer from a bumblebee’s nest, for example because the bumblebees keep coming into the house. If there is really no other option, you can, for example, contact a beekeeper in your area to see if it is possible to move the nest. It is usually quite difficult to move a bumblebee nest. It could be if the nest is in a bird’s nest box, for example. In that case it can be moved a maximum of 50 centimeters per day. Bumblebees are protected and therefore should not be killed. If possible, the advice is to leave the nest. They only live for a short time and only cause nuisance for a short time. For example, you could place a nest box in your yard so that the bumblebees have a place to build their nest.