In the spring, the first bumblebees we see are special ones – these are potential queens. Bumblebee queens that were fertilised in the late summer or early autumn of the previous year, have successfully overwintered and are looking for a place to establish a nest in April or May, can be considered potential queens. Those that find a suitable location and build a nest will go from being potential queens to full-fledged queens. Naturalist Ilmārs Tīrmanis reveals exactly when, where and what kind of spot each potential queen is looking for this time, while highlighting the importance of the specific insect species.

Commonly encountered bumblebee species

Thirty bumblebee species have been recorded in the Latvian fauna to date. However, not all of them are visually recognisable. Furthermore, some of these species have not yet been assigned official Latvian names. Some of them live in tree hollows, under stones and in other places.

The brightly coloured forest bumblebee is relatively common, as is the equally brightly coloured ground bumblebee. Forest bumblebee queens set up their nests in a wide variety of places, both above and below ground, whereas ground bumblebee queens always choose nesting sites relatively deep underground.
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