Three Acre Tablea garden, a kitchen, a good excuse to gather
Bombus spp.
Plate — illustration to come
BeeNative · New Jerseydeclining

Bumble Bees

Bombus spp.

Apidae · Genus Bombus

Big, fuzzy, striped, social bees — the ones everyone recognizes. Bumble bees are the most efficient pollinators in New Jersey and the only bees here that can buzz-pollinate: vibrating their flight muscles at a specific pitch to shake pollen loose from flowers that lock it away.

Identify by

How to spot one.

  • Round furry body, 0.5–1 inch

  • Distinct color bands — yellow, black, sometimes orange

  • Slow, loud flight — you can hear one coming

  • Legs carry visible packed pollen baskets on the hind legs

Life & behavior

How it lives.

Annual social colonies of 50–500 workers, founded in spring by a single overwintered queen. Nests in abandoned rodent burrows, tussock grass, hollow logs, or brush piles. Only new queens survive the winter — everyone else dies with the frost.

At a glance

The spec sheet.

Type
Bee
Active
April – October
Native to NJ
Yes
Conservation status
declining
Family
Apidae · Genus Bombus
In the group

Notable species.

Species you’re most likely to see, plus any of conservation concern.

  • Common Eastern Bumble Bee

    Bombus impatiens

    Most widespread NJ bumble bee — the one you see most often

  • Brown-belted Bumble Bee

    Bombus griseocollis

    Common, generalist, orange band across the abdomen

  • Two-spotted Bumble Bee

    Bombus bimaculatus

    Two yellow spots on abdomen; found throughout NJ

  • American Bumble Bee

    Bombus pensylvanicus

    Declining across its range

    declining

  • Rusty-patched Bumble Bee

    Bombus affinis

    Federally Endangered. Locally extinct from NJ since the late 1990s

    locally extinct

Plants it uses

What it needs.

Plants this species visits, feeds on, or depends on. Names in hydrangea link to the plant’s Field Guide entry.

Conservation

The Rusty-patched Bumble Bee (Bombus affinis) was once common across NJ. It has been considered locally extinct from the state since the late 1990s, and was federally listed as Endangered in 2017 — the first bumble bee in the continental US to receive that protection. Other native bumble bees are declining, largely from habitat loss, pesticides, and pathogen spillover from managed honey bees.

Sources

Xerces Society · US Fish & Wildlife Service · NJ Conservation Foundation

More bees

Others in this group.