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Bumblebees Dying in Pumpkin Flowers

Help please. I am distraught! My 5 year old son wanted to grow his own pumpkins this year. The plants have done really well and every flower has had 3 or 4 bumblebees at any one time inside feeding from the nectar. But now I have noticed that they are dying inside. They are dead in the bottom of open flowers and I opened some dead flowers and there were dead bees inside. We’d been so excited that the bees were loving the flowers but now I feel sick to think the plant might be killing them. Do pumpkin flowers kill bumblebees?

Posts

  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    I had never heard of this before and can appreciate your distress. It may be the case that bumblebees and pumpkins do not mix.
    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200311161908.htm#:~:text=Bumblebees do visit pumpkin and,up pollinating the next flower.
    I wonder if anyone else on the forum has observed this? 
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    Perhaps if you grew beneficial flowers alongside the pumpkins, the bees would feed off them in preference.  
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • Thank you so much for the advice. I grow patty pans and this doesn’t happen with them. Don’t grow courgettes as I’m the only person who eats them. I’ve got three pumpkins forming so I’ve gone and cut them back to the three fruits and removed all other flowers. I don’t think I’ll grow them again just in case. Eight dead bees in the flowers suggests a problem. The seeds came from Lidl so I might also email them about it
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    Depends on the type of bee.  Some species form a small colony but are left to fend for themselves after the queen naturally dies and often end their days clinging to a food source but with no colony to go back to and keep each other warm, they don't last long.  Are they all the same type of bee?  A photo might help to ID them.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • Dirty HarryDirty Harry Posts: 1,048
    I've noticed bumblebees dying whilst clinging to flowers as well and I haven't used any chemicals at all this year.

    They're going to die at some point so would be surprised if was anything other than their time to go.
  • I’ve emptied the flowers out now. They have been a mixture of very large bumblebees and smaller ones, perhaps half the size. They seem to die upside down. I thought they were feeding.
  • Blue OnionBlue Onion Posts: 2,995
    Maybe they suffocated? If 3-4 are in there at the same time, then the one at the bottom of the pile may be unable to move.

    This is about hornets: “They contract their abdominal muscles to exhale and relax the muscles to inhale. As the insects exhale, the plates of their exoskeleton gradually cover the spiracles, and hornets can only open the plates back up to uncover the holes when their abdomens are free to move.”  But maybe the same for bumblebees?  
    https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2007/09/honey-bee-defense-leaves-hornets-breathless
    Utah, USA.
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    AnniD's link above does seem to show there's an issue specific to bumblebees 
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
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