What Happened to the Bumblebees?

By Andrea Berry. This story was collected as part of a 2023 open call for submissions. It is one of 17 stories that were selected to be published.

In the summer of 2021, our area saw single day temperatures of 103 degrees or more, and several episodes of three to five consecutive days of 100 degrees or more. I observed the absence of bumblebees from my yard and the overall area by early July, where they had been plentiful previously. I began to ask other people locally and noted that many people were not seeing bumblebees, either. This led me to locate research on the effects of high heat on bumblebees, from which I learned that high temperatures can cause infertility in males and possibly the death of males and females at temperatures of 104 degrees or greater.

I also observed that tomato plants and other garden vegetables were behaving unusually. Tomatoes would flower abundantly but failed to produce tomatoes. Beans appeared normal in appearance and growth but flowered without producing beans. Other plants, such as squash, grew profusely, producing more than usual. Eventually I learned that plants are also affected by extreme heat. Depending on the time it occurs in the life cycle of the plant, it can prevent production of food and/or impair the health of the plant so that it can’t recover even when temperatures moderate. 

These two effects of extreme heat caused by climate change can intersect further. Stressed plants and stressed bees can’t interact in their usual healthy manner, which potentially further limits productivity. The only way to assist plants is to provide shade to break the extreme heat, and the way to assist bees is to provide habitat and native plant floral sources to support their overall health and their ability to withstand extreme heat. 

From July 2021 through August 2022, I did not see a bumblebee in my yard or in the larger area. I planted more native plants in my yard in 2022 and finally saw one bumblebee in September 2022, over a year after the first episodes of extreme heat. I hope that continuing to expand the native plants and supportive habitat in my yard will encourage the native bumblebee population. For my plants, I hope to try burlap shade cloth to help moderate the heat in summer 2023.