Bumble Bee Buzz Pollination
Bumblebees and other native bees were long ignored by farmers because they produce little or no
honey and don’t form large, portable colonies like honeybees do. But the true importance of bees is
their ability to pollinate plants, that is, to perform the essential task of transferring pollen from plants’
male to female reproductive organs, staring the process of fruit and seed formation.
Bumblebees are now being heralded as important crop pollinators, especially in these times of
declining honeybee populations. And bumblebees are especially effective pollinators because they,
as well as some other native bees, can employ a method not practiced by honeybees, called
sonication or buzz pollination.
Buzz-pollinated flowers wait until a bee comes along and vibrates at just the right frequency, in just
the right spot, and bang! Out comes the pollen in a spew.
Buzz-pollinated flowers wait until a bee comes along and vibrates at just the right frequency, in just
the right spot, and bang! Out comes the pollen in a spew. Buzz pollination can be useful for
releasing or collecting pollen from many types of flowers, but it is essential for some, including
potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers; pumpkins, zucchinis, blueberries and cranberries.
The anthers (male reproductive organs) of these flowers have only small pores through which
pollen is released, like the holes in a pepper shaker.
Sometimes wind or visits from insects can
inadvertently shake out some pollen, but the amounts are small. Also, many of these flowers do
not produce nectar, so honeybees ignore them anyway.
When a bee sonicates, she basically dumps the clutch on her wings to put them in neutral, and revs
up her wing muscles. This produces a vibrating vroom up to 400 Hz, or 24,000 vibrations per minute.
It creates a distinct buzzy sound, which is sometimes interpreted as the bee being "angry." Nope,
she's just working hard to convince the flower to expel its pollen.
Bumblebees, by contrast, actively collect and eat not just nectar but also protein-rich pollen. And a
bumblebee can cause a flower to discharge a visible cloud of pollen through buzz pollination. The
bumblebee grasps the flower with its legs or mouthparts and vibrates its flight muscles very rapidly
without moving its wings. This vibration shakes electrostatically charged pollen out of the anthers,
and the pollen is attracted to the bumblebee’s oppositely charged body hairs. The bumblebee later
grooms the pollen from its body into pollen-carrying structures on its back legs for transport to its
nest.
Although discovered relatively recently, buzz pollination is no secret. Buzz-pollinating bumblebees
make a distinctive, middle-C buzz, which is noticeably higher pitched than the buzz of flight. No
special equipment is needed to hear the sound of buzz pollination, just listen for a distinctive
middle-C “raspberry” next time you find a plant buzzing with bumblebees.
Sometimes bumblebees employ buzz pollination on flowers that don’t require it, for example,
California poppies. This may release the already accessible pollen more quickly and efficiently.
They also use the energy of buzz pollination for other purposes, for example, compacting soil in
their underground burrows (bumblebees don’t build hives like honeybees) or moving a pebble or
other obstacle.
Honeybees cannot perform buzz pollination (so far, only a few kinds bees are known to do it), and
therefore they cannot pollinate some important crops and wild plants. In fact, commercially-grown
greenhouse tomatoes were traditionally pollinated by handheld electric vibrators with names like
“Electric Bee” or “Pollinator II.”
Wisconsin Bee Identification Guide
Spring Wild Bees of Wisconsin
Bumble Bees of Wisconsin
Wild Native Bee Nest Boxes