Bumblebee Decline Poses Possible Problems For Tomato Pollination
By Vanessa Richins
By now, you have likely heard that the honeybee is in trouble.
Dubbed victims of colony collapse disorder, whole colonies are suddenly disappearing.
Scientists haven’t pinpointed the cause yet – some feel it might have to do with mites, but this has not been confirmed.
Without honeybees, crops will have trouble being pollinated or fail outright.
Now, scientists are discovering a similar problem with one species of bumblebee – Bombus affinis, the rusty-patched bumblebee.
Bumblebees are essential for pollinating some plants – for example, tomatoes, raspberries and sweet peppers. Because of the way they vibrate the flowers while pollinating, their efforts cannot be replaced by regular honeybees.
In recent years, scientists have noticed that the rusty-patched bumblebee seems to have disappeared. It normally is found throughout Southeastern Canada and the Eastern United States.
An article in the Ottawa Citizen explains the findings:
“The little bee emerges in April and lives until October, when the queen hibernates and all her subjects die. In its heyday, the rusty patched represented about 15 per cent of all bumblebees someone would see on a summer day.
By 2005, searchers found 9,000 bumblebees in an annual survey, and just one of the 9,000 was a rusty patched”
While there are other bumblebee species around, they all perform pollination at different times. If one species is missing, it can result in a large disruption of pollination.
In Southwestern Ontario, tomato growers have been trying to have large bumblebee colonies indoor to keep them safe, but since they are reared in artificial conditions, problems such as diseases become large problems.
The rusty-patched bumblebee isn’t alone in its decline, however. Studies by Sheila Colla, a PhD candidate in biology at York University, “find fewer bumblebees overall in Ontario than a couple of decades ago. Half the 14 species found in the 1970s are either missing or in decline.”
I hope that someday soon the problems with bees can be identified so we can save our little friends. What do you think the problem may be?
April 7th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Hi Vanessa! Thank God, tomatoes are actually wind-pollinated, so while bumblebees may help increase fruit set, they’re not essential. When I was getting my masters in horticulture, our greenhouse professor would have us flick the tomato blossoms in the greenhouse with our fingers to help them fruit, since they weren’t out in the breeze. I still do that in my own greenhouse! Fortunately, our local bee populations still seem to be okay here in my part of Pennsylvania, but I’m planning to buy orchard bees this year to supplement our native populations.
April 9th, 2009 at 6:14 am
ofB! I’m a blossom flicker too!
April 11th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Yeah – they’re not totally essential, but could make it a bit more problematic in areas that aren’t breezy. It’s sad that they’re having problems, in any case.
April 23rd, 2009 at 7:15 am
We get plenty of wind here so the tomatoes get plenty of shaking.
I do flick the blossoms too! I just can’t help myself..anything to help the garden!
I’m thankful that the bee population seems to be doing well here. Last year I only noticed a few bumblebees and now this year we have way more. They are funny bees..territorial and all over their nectar source.
I too am adding honeybees this year. We are on acreage that we’ve allowed to grow as many native wildflowers as we can. I get sad when people basically sterilize their lawn just for the sake of having good turfgrass. Poor bees…
September 6th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I have 2 big tubs of Big Boy tomatoes growing on my deck that produce fruit consistently in SE Michigan.
On any sunny day when the flowers are fully open, I rub my dry fingers underneath the down-facing blooms, one after the other. Few days later, the pimple-sized tomatoes pop right out, and grow in bunches of mostly 3.
They take prodigious amount of water from my round water barrels, 32 gal each, which I buy at WallMart or Meijers at about $10 each, spike with Miracle-Gro 24-8-16, half a spoon to the 2 gal bucket.
It takes about 3-4 gal of water per tub per day, 5 plants to the tub.
-All home eggshells get blender-ground and sprinkled in for good measure.