Natural wonder of the week

Here you will find a weekly tribute to a natural wonder weekly, various flora and fauna or nature wonders of the world!

This week we meet the white tailed bumble bee. A common site in your back garden, your friendly neighborhood pollinator!

I don't know about you, but I spent a long time being nervous around bumble bees, as I know they have a sting. This sting however, is only used if they are attacked or threatened, they really aren't looking for a fight. Quite the opposite in fact, all bees, including bumble bees are working tirelessly to pollinate flowers, trees and shrubs, which in turn preserve our eco system. The gentle bumble bee, in fact, has no objection to being handled, as I found out.

A bumble bee in distress

I'm not suggesting here, that you go and find a bumble bee, try to catch it and pet it, not at all - that would be likely to upset and agitate the bee - do not do that. What I am saying is, have you ever found a bumble bee crawling along dozily on a dry pathway in the heat of mid-summer? If so, it is highly likely that they are heat exhausted and need a little of your help. There is a very simple way you can help - here's what you can do. You take a small amount of water and mix it with a little sugar (1 teaspoon), take it to this bee in distress. I was fortunate to have the time to sit with the bee on my garden path and watch it make it's way to the sugar water and enjoy a drink, when finished the gentle bee then crawled towards and onto my hand, and settled on it for bit, rested for a few minutes and was then ready for work once again.

This brings me to my next very important point, don't the leave the sugar water mix out, bring it back in with you when the bee is finished, as to bees, it is the equivalent of a junk food pick me up, and shouldn't be readily left out as a substitute for the nectar the bees rely on for a food source. The things you can leave out to help bumble bees, and indeed all bees are nectar rich plants in your garden and hanging baskets, and bowls of shallow water with gravel or small pebbles placed inside, so they can have a drink. Another great object you can place in your garden or on your outside wall is a bee or bug hotel, to offer a safe hideout or place to sleep. One of my favorite facts about bees is that they can learn, and research suggests they may be capable of dreaming! Not as we know dreaming, because their eyesight and perception isn't the same as ours, but research certainly suggests that they are capable of this memory review as they slumber. For more information please visit the reference links below, and thank you for reading!

Resources: This is why leaving sugar water out for bees could be disastrous - Gloucestershire Live, BBC - Earth - Bees learn while they sleep, and that means they might dream