APPLETON, MAINE // A bumblebee buzzes and batters her wings against the walls of the vial holding her captive.
Her warden is Shaina Helsel, one of an army of citizens taking a census of bumblebees in the US state of Maine in an effort to secure the future of the state’s blueberries, cranberries and tomatoes amid concern about the population of pollinators.
The census – among a growing number being carried out in the US – has a budget of US$50,000 (Dh183,000) and is manned by volunteers who collect “observational data” about bumblebees and their habitats, while a specialist identifies the specimens they collect. The national conversation about bees dying off has largely centred on honeybees, which are different from the furry, chunky bumblebees. The Bee Informed Partnership said this year that about 5,000 beekeepers reported losing more than 40 per cent of their honeybee colonies in the 12 months to April.
In Maine, the focus is on bumblebees and state officials say species that are in decline have suffered from habitat loss, pesticides, and diseases and parasites introduced through commercially raised bumblebees.
Maine has 17 known native bumblebee species and four of them became rarely observed starting in the 1990s. Data on the other 13 species is poor, which is why the census will be of value.
“Some of their work will give us quantitative data; we’ll be able to tell if that particular species is declining or increasing,” says Beth Swartz, biologist for the state department of inland fisheries and wildlife.
The status of bumblebees has generated concern in the US because the southern borders of their territories have crept northwards over the past 40 years. Scientists say populations have declined or are disappearing because of warming weather.
The numbers of spring days when bumblebees can visit blueberries and other plants in Maine has been reduced by half since the 1990s because of increased rain. That is worrisome for a state that relies on blueberries for $250 million a year in economic value. “At that critical time of blueberry pollination, we’ve been getting lots of wet springs,” says Frank Drummond, a professor of insect ecology at the University of Maine.
* Associated Press
