7 Native Bees in Your Yard

Bumble bees (Bombus)

“Bumble bees are superstar pollinators, due to their largish size, lots of hairs and adaptability to collect pollen from many different plants,” says Lerman.

They can pollinate six flowers in the time it takes a honey bee to get to one, all the while packing nectar and pollen into baskets (corbiculae) on their hind legs to carry back to their hive. They also scent mark flowers after they visit them.

“These bees do a type of pollen gathering called ‘buzz pollination,’ where they use their thoracic muscles to cause a vibration that releases the dry pollen grains out of a flower’s anthers,” says Ali.

Ambassadors of cuteness, bumble bees are easy to identify as a genus by their large size and furry, often black-and-yellow bodies. These darlings are found across the U.S., with 50 native species that mostly nest underground or in crevices.

If you have tomatoes, you definitely want bumble bees in your garden, because their flowers require buzz pollination. Bumble bees are also food for birds, spiders, wasps, badgers, foxes and bears.