How to Attract Bumblebees

Learning how to attract bumblebees goes beyond planting a few summer blooming plants and hoping for the best. Certainly adding in their favorite forage invites bees to your garden, especially if you offer plants that flower from very early spring through late autumn. But, there are a few other things you can do the create a garden habitat that attracts bumblebees.

So to recap 4 easy ways to attract bumblebees into your garden:

1. Cultivate an assortment of plants that flower throughout the year for bumblebees.

2. Sign up with a local beekeeper who does poison-free extractions and offers to re-home any intact bumblebee nests.

3. Create undisturbed bumblebee friendly areas on your property.

4. Don't use pesticides in your garden

Want queen Bombus to nest in your garden?

1. Don’t clean up your garden floor ’til every inch looks tidy for the growing season. Yup! Embrace your inner sloth and don’t rake up all that leaf duff that fell last fall and overwintered. Sure, a few slugs may live in there, but so do overwintering queen bees, beetles and other beneficial garden life.

2. Don’t remove abandoned bird nests. Queen bee loves to snuggle her brood into these cozy cradles of twigs and fluff.

3. Don’t clean out your bird houses. These are some of the fuzzy, buzzy queen’s favorite abodes.