Bumblebees get covered in pollen

due to their extremely fuzzy, positively charged bodies acting as magnets for negatively charged pollen grains while foraging. The useful work of bees in gardens is to pollinate plants by transferring pollen from flower to flower.

This essential process allows plants to fertilize, reproduce, and produce seeds and fruits, which significantly increases harvest yields and maintains vibrant, diverse garden ecosystems.

Three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce.
That’s one out of every three bites of food you eat.

More than 3,500 species of native bees help increase crop yields. Some scientists estimate that one out of every three bites of food we eat exists because of animal pollinators like bees, butterflies and moths, birds and bats, and beetles and other insects.

• This bee appears to be a Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus impatiens), distinguished by its mostly black abdomen and short yellow thorax.
• It is known for its social structure with queens, workers, and males active from spring to fall.
• These bees are native pollinators that can be found in a variety of habitats, feeding on a wide range of wildflowers. [1, 2, 3]

• This bee is an Eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica), often confused with bumblebees due to its large size.
• They are solitary pollinators that excavate nests in trees or wooden structures, rather than living in large social colonies.
• While females can sting, they rarely do so; males have no stinger at all.
  

Stop by All Green Thumbs Nursery at Carroll’s Ace Hardware in Tega Cay
and pick up your plants and gardening supplies.