Save the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee
The Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee is Critical to Their Environment
The Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee is essential to the environment in which they live because of their vital role as pollinators of wild flowering plants and crops. They are a generalist species, which allows them to live in a variety of climates, both hot and cold, and still perform their necessary tasks. They are incredibly important and have an instrumental use value by providing the necessary pollination for crops eaten by humans, which means we have these bumblebees to thank for putting food on our plates every day. The Rusty-Patched have a great ecological value and help increase biodiversity through their unique niche as buzz pollinators, as they are relied on by many flora species for pollination and animal species for food. The loss of the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee will result in the vulnerability of many native mammals, birds, and small organisms who will be required to change their living patterns (Colla, 2010). If we do not help this species, we will be leaving not only the bumblebee to die off on its own, but everything around it too. The question is, do YOU want to live in a bland, life-free world?
Bumblebees are not just cute little fluffy creatures--they’re also the most diverse type of bee pollinators in the world. A 1999 study conducted by Stony Brook University revealed that while honeybees have a strong preference for ray flowers, bumblebees showed no preference between those and their counterpiece, disk flowers (Differences in Honey Bee, 1999). Therefore, if bumblebees go extinct, who will pollinate all of the non-ray flowers honeybees choose to avoid?! The Rusty Patched is only the first in a negative decline in bumblebee species. While this species has the worst current rate of population decline at 95%, all bumblebees are at some risk of endangerment, and the decline of these species would be utterly detrimental as well (Jepson, 2013). If we can protect the first threatened species, then we can prevent the rest from falling down the same path, and our fluffy little friends will be safe to continue helping to make the world a better place.
The Bees Also Help Us--But We Are Harming Them
The Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee is also absolutely crucial for agricultural pollination. Have you ever stopped to think about how much work goes into the food on your table, not just by people, but by the animals? We have bumblebees such as the Rusty-Patched to thank for that! Because this species needs only plentiful flowering plants to fulfill their food requirements of nectar and pollen, they are adaptable to live in environments with a variety of plant life, so long as flowers are readily available (Rusty Patched Bumble Bee, Vermont). However, due to the increase in commercial rearing of honeybees, pesticides and herbicides are making it into these flowers, and are killing both the plants and the bees! It is absolutely despicable that we, in a society that claims to have advanced so much and learned to improve our world for the better of all, can fail to prevent our fellow humans from killing off the species that provides irreplaceable services to us!
The Bumblebee’s Resiliency is the Only Thing Keeping it Alive at This Time
Luckily, the Rusty Patched can be in flight for long periods of time, giving them the opportunity to search far and wide for a variety of plants to pollinate, both wild and crops, in a variety of biomes such as temperate grasslands and deciduous forests (Colla, 2010). Many pollinators do not have this wide and varying range of territory, and therefore it is up to us to fully acknowledge the incredible valuability of these creatures. Can you imagine a world without fruits, vegetables, and beautiful flowering plants? No? Well, we need BEES to have these things.
While male and young worker bees die off within the year, young female queen bees must stock up on nectar and pollen to make it through the winter (Rusty Patched Bumble Bee, Xerces). Because of this, they can continue to year-round pollinate the food we grow and eat. The Rusty-Patched are r-strategists, and queens have the capability to lay 2,000 eggs in a day, however, there are less than 16,000 individual Rusty Patched Bumble Bees left in the world (Have You Seen The Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee?, 2002). If they reproduce so quickly, then how can their population be so low? Most of the eggs die before they can hatch, and because of the many threats to this species, hardly any survive once they do hatch. In a perfect world world, the Rusty-Patched would be able to reach its biotic potential if threats to the species went away and it was free to reproduce and had enough resources for a growing population without threats of overshooting the area’s carrying capacity. If such an occasion occurred and the Rusty-patched reached its biotic potential, then we would find a land rich with bumble bees, wild flowers, and an overall increase in biodiversity. And now, the first steps towards decreasing the threats and increasing the population of the Rusty-Patched is in YOUR hand!
With Every Rusty-Patched Loss, There is a Chain Reaction
It is critical that every effort can be made to protect these Rusty-Patched queens and ensure that they make it throughout the winter, because they are a foundation species--the only members of their species living at this time of year. Due to their terribly decreased range, if something were to happen to these queens, be it pesticides or habitat destruction or changing global climate, we would see horrifically detrimental population declines and a possible disappearance of the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee. This species is not just another animal that helps the natural species around it; it is a critical part of every one one of our lives. And so far, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has denied us permission to protect these incredible creatures and the services they provide!
All in all, the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee is an insect critical not only for providing pollination for our food, but for their pollination of plants that provide nutrients to other organisms living in their ecosystem. The loss of one species throws off the lifestyle of every other species around it, threatening a horrific ripple effect to occur if the initial species cannot be preserved. If there are no more Rusty-Patched Bumble Bees to pollinate wildflower plants, then they will not be able to bloom, flower, and mature. If the plants cannot flower, then they cannot provide sufficient nutrients as food for animals. If the animals do not get the food they need, they will become weak and unable to perform their roles in the ecosystem. If these animals cannot provide their services, then the entire ecosystem could collapse. Therefore, not only humans, but other animal and plant species need this species to survive. We cannot live without the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee, and therefore WE CANNOT LET IT GO EXTINCT.
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Invaluable and Irreplaceable
Rusty-Patched Bumble Bees have a number of benefits and irreplaceable values which they contribute to the animals, plants, and us humans living around them, increasing biodiversity, supplementing economic growth, and feeding hungry mouths. They have a great instrumental use value by increasing biodiversity and through their pollination of crops, as you can find out more about on the economic importance page. They have aesthetic value because the Rusty-Patched pollinates flowers and plants in meadow and forest biomes, and without that pollination no color or diversity would be presented to the landscape. The Rusty-Patched has a bequest value because just as we have enjoyed the flowers, the foods, and the animals this bumblebee has helped support, our kids, grandkids, and great-great-great grandkids have the right to enjoys these things too. However, more than anything else, the rusty-patched has an intrinsic value--the right to live. Imagine if there was some great creature that was 1,000 times the size of us humans, and they suddenly decided that we had no right to live on this planet anymore. We would be outraged! No one should be able to take that away from us! Similarly, it is NOT OUR RIGHT TO TAKE AWAY THE LIVES AND HOMES OF THE RUSTY-PATCHED BUMBLE BEE. We must help them get through this low point and grow in numbers once again, because they are creatures of this earth, if for nothing more.
