It is difficult to find the nests of fossorial bees. It takes close inspection with practice to see the nest entrances (and tumulus). Once the bees have completed their nests and blocked the entrances, they are impossible to find. I know of no simple way, such as with chemicals, that can be used. I think that in Europe some scientists have used trained dogs to sniff out bee nests, but I suspect that the nests were of bumblebees (Bombus spp.). Good luck, Peter (Peter G. Kevan)

Many thanks for the information.

The idea to use sniff dog is bit costly and have some social problems. But good for hilly areas with no human population.

This year it was found that these bumble bees after hibernation select the areas with some shade, slope or rock pieces used for pavement or buildings in villages in hilly areas. Our observation showed their choice of hills where it was difficult to climb.

We also collected some and one of them successfully produced the progeny and daughters. Now the problem we are facing is that they are not mating even with the males collected from natural environment. Have you any idea if we could do it with artificially. Many thanks again

I am not an expert on how to get bumblebees to mate under artificial conditions. There are scientists who have accomplished this task. You may want to contact Nigel Raine and Mark Brown at Royal Holloway University in UK. In the USA, Sydney Cameron may be able to suggest who to contact. I do know that there are differences that depend on the subgenus of Bombus in question.

In respect of your original question, there are some ideas in the book Practical Pollination Biology (Ed. by Dafni et al.) and Simon Potts (Reading, UK) may be able to assist further.

Peter

Many thanks sir, I shall contact and also thanks for the book

There have been some recent attempts (I believe all unpublished) to use emergence traps to collect bees from nests. It is essentially a mesh tent without a bottom and a collecting jar similar to a Malaise trap. The numbers of bees collected per emergence trap is quite low (less than one - and mostly not bumble bees). To purchase the traps would be costly, but they could also be home made. For bumble bees just a visual search might be the best way to find a nest.

I used tumulus to locate the nesting sites of a solitary, underground bees.

Many thanks, it will definitely help in search of their nests. We focused on number of hibernating queens coming out and looking for possible sites for nest making. As most of the landscape is rocky and steep mountains, it is quite difficult for their nest search.