You can't really do much about the mosquitoes in your back yard, but a group of volunteers has the answer for unwanted bumblebees on your property. Bumblebees typically nest underground in a warm place and a colony usually has a few dozen members. Volunteers from the Community Pollinator Foundation rescues unwanted nests and passes them on to foster families. The group’s goal is to increase the number of healthy, sustainable pollinator habitats in the city. Danielle Caruk says bumblebees are important pollinators in an urban setting and they are critical in your garden for plants which produce fruit or vegetables. The bees collect pollen and nectar from flowers and will travel up to 7 Km looking for food. Unlike honey bees that stay in the hive over the winter, bumblebees die off when it gets too cold. “It's the queen bee who over winters and comes out the next season and continues the cycle of the bumblebees so we need to make sure those princesses, as I like to call them, survive the summer and can fatten themselves up and over winter to come out next year,” said Caruk. There are about 12 species of bumblebee in Southern Alberta and they will rarely interfere with humans unless their nests are disturbed. For more information, visit The Community Pollinator Foundation website.
