It has long been recognised that bumble bees most often nest in abandoned mammal (usually rodent) nests, and I believe various researchers have tested the effects of mammal scent in attracting queens to field hives, but I'm not aware of any positive results. However I have not been keeping up with literature for a while and may have missed it.
Do you know of results confirming the effect of mammalian odours?
If I remember correctly, it is the workers that scout out new locations for a hive and make sure it is satisfactory before the queen bee moves.
No, that is honey bees. Bumble bee nests are started by solitary queens.
Dear Nelson,
this is a very interesting technical question which I personally never thought of. To my knowledge, the reason why bumble bees very often nest in abandoned mammal (mice and voles) nests is that they cannot dig themselves. According to many links available on the general internet it is generally accepted that some bumble bees can faintly smell the mice and voles that once built the nest and follow this scent until they find the entrance. Unfortunately I could not yet access a scientific article in which this behavior has been proven.
Good luck with your work!
Hello Nelson; With your own experience you could easily to a simple test of the proposition. Traps could be baited with feces (mouse or vole) and see what you get. You will certainly get some scarab beetles too. Other traps using old nest material might also be productive. Best regards, Jim Des Lauriers
Hi Jim. Thanks for the comments. I have already (1973, unpublished thesis) experimented with mouse nests in a large flight room and they were ignored in favour of upholsterer's cotton. I'm in my senior years now and although still doing some rearing, I'm asking the question specifically to find any literature that has found an effect. Cheers; Nelson
Nelson; Being in your senior years (I am as well) is emancipating. Enjoy it! I'm on a "busman's holiday" chasing ants in the mountains. Cheers, Jim Des Lauriers
Kia ora from Hamilton!
I've found loads of references over time to many species of Bombus using rodent burrows (and observed it myself--massive density of B. nevadensis nests in vole burrows in a no-till wheat field). However, the studies I have found which try to test the effect of rodent bedding material alone have all found no effect:
- Your thesis.
- Barron, M. C., Wratten, S. D., & Donovan, B. J. (2000). A four‐year investigation into the efficacy of domiciles for enhancement of bumble bee populations. Agricultural and Forest Entomology, 2(2), 141-146.
- Gaston, K. J., Smith, R. M., Thompson, K., & Warren, P. H. (2005). Urban domestic gardens (II): experimental tests of methods for increasing biodiversity. Biodiversity & Conservation, 14(2), 395-413.
And no effect of rodent scent on nest selection by solitary Osmia, either:
- Kierat, J., Filipiak, M., Szentgyörgyi, H., & Woyciechowski, M. (2017). Predation cues in solitary bee nests. Journal of insect behavior, 30(4), 385-393.
I have never found any literature where people are measuring (via electroantennograms or other methodology) whether bumble bees are even capable of sensing rodent odours. All that being said, there seems to be an opinion amongst scholars from the UK that rodent bedding is effective, so perhaps I need to dig a little deeper!
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