PRAIRIE POLLINATORS | BUMBLEBEES
About Bumblebees:
Bumblebees are excellent pollinators! Their furry coats are designed to easily pick up pollen as they move quickly around flowers during early spring and well into fall.
B. griseocollis, also known as the brown-belted bumblebee, is one of the most commonly seen bumblebees in Northwestern Ohio. This species often inhabits prairies, but they can occupy other habitats like meadows, wetlands, agricultural fields, and urban areas. Brown-belted bumblebees feed on many kinds of plants, such as milkweeds, prairie clovers, echinaceas, loosestrife, bergamot, pickerel weeds, rudbeckias, goldenrods, clovers, and vetches.
When cold weather arrives in late fall, the bumblebee colony dies out and the queen bumblebee undergoes diapause—a state of suspended development—before emerging in early spring to begin a new colony.
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